Mass Ibrox cull – seven-player axe for Steven Gerrard

Rangers’ raft of exits continued yesterday as a further seven names appeared primed for the way out of Govan following axes on who went to Portugal.

The wires have been buzzing with Graham Dorrans, Kyle Lafferty, Jason Holt and Eros Grezda’s omission from the summer trip, but joining them on the sofas at home are Ryan Hardie, Joe Dodoo and Jordan Rossiter.

It was alleged that Rossiter was given extra time off, but frankly how much does he need beyond the two months already out following his final match with Bury on the 4th of May?

And Joe Dodoo and Ryan Hardie are considered surplus with the additions of Greg Stewart, Joe Aribo and Jake Hastie not to mention Jordan Jones. Both will either be loaned out (again) or sold.

So, all seven of these players were not among the squad going out to sunnier climes and none are expected, according to our information, to join up any later.

In short, for all the ‘mild numbers’ of changes Steven Gerrard assured us would take place this summer, clearly serious work is being done again to get this squad up to a level we conceive of pushing Celtic harder.