Who holds blame for Ibrox embarrassment?

We must admit some chagrin here at Ibrox Noise Towers. As readers will know we recently covered the loss of circa £3M as a result of writing off Fabio Cardoso and Bruno Alves’ deals.

In Alves case he had a move lined up to Parma, and the club knew this in advance. The fact Rangers wasted around £1M on him plus likely paid off his deal to an extent is only part of the disappointment, but he was 36 and a transfer free would have been modest at best, but the developments of the past 24 hours with regards his younger compatriot frankly grinds our ears.

Cardoso knew he had no future at Ibrox. He had been a disaster of a signing, and manager Steven Gerrard told him his playing time would be ‘limited’ – aka a polite way of saying he wouldn’t be playing under the new boss.

Estoril were linked with a move in January for the 24-year old, but nothing materialised, and his three-year contract ran on at the time for another two and a half seasons.

Fast forward to yesterday – Cardoso confirmed as departed by mutual consent, Rangers having failed to find a buyer for him over the course of six months. In short, Rangers gave up on getting any kind of cash for him.

And yet… barely 12 hours after the announcement, Cardoso signs a four year deal with some Portuguese mob.

Anyone else see anything a bit dodgy with this?

Rangers lose out on the £1.3M we paid Vitoria De Setubal, and Santa Clara get him for free without having to pay us a transfer fee, following months of Rangers’ board and the player’s agent apparently failing to find a new club for the defender?

Plus the added likelihood Cardoso gets, as a Bosman, a fat signing on fee from Santa Clara, a nice pay off from Rangers, and a plum four year deal into the bargain back home.

There is no denying he and his agent played a blinder here, but we have to deeply question the competence of those who allowed this to happen.

Added onto the absolute shambles of the Sports Direct embarrassment and we’re wondering why, for all that is good with the transfer window and on-pitch business, why off it Rangers still appear to be incredibly poorly managed.

Weak.