As Ibrox Noise discussed earlier, the numbers spent this window so far have been extremely frugal to say the least. Whatever your opinion on it, Rangers have been extremely careful with money this term compared with the £6M which had already been spent in the summer window last year at this point.
However, something else sprung to our attention as well.
Stevie suggested before the end of the season that there would be a ‘few’ new signings and only ones which improved the team.
In short, nothing like the rampant overhaul which punctuated last June onwards.
Only, the bizarre oddity here is we’ve actually signed exactly the same number of players this summer as we did at this point last time around!
Last June the 29th, Steven Gerrard had added:
Allan McGregor, Scott Arfield, Nikola Katic, Connor Goldson, Jon Flanagan, Jamie Murphy, and Ovie Ejaria. Seven players.
This time it’s:
George Edmundson, Sheyi Ojo, Jake Hastie, Jordan Jones, Joe Aribo, Greg Stewart and Steven Davis.
Seven players.
Davis is this year’s Jamie Murphy, of adding an existing loan to be made permanent, and Ojo this year’s Ejaria of a June loan (hopefully with much better results), meaning this June has mirrored last one exactly.
The big difference this year could be the markets Stevie is working from after June, if any – and certainly the money spent by this point. Just Sheyi Ojo from the loans and minimal cash into the transfer market for Edmundson and Aribo, with the rest all being frees. Last summer of course ended up seeing a glut of loan players arriving after June in the form of Kent, Sadiq, Worrall and Coulibaly. We don’t think we’re going to see this repeated.
And the transfer market saw Eros Grezda (£2M), Borna Barisic (£2M), and Kyle Lafferty (£650,000) arrive, none of which returned value for money that season.
Is it any wonder the tactics may change while staying curiously similar?
Gerrard professed he’d get the lion’s share done earlier, but ultimately the same numbers have already arrived at the same time.
Whether the rest of the summer will see bigger spending, or further loans arriving remains to be seen but after the result of spending and loans last term, it may be the signing strategy has changed.
Either way, it’s still pretty much exactly the same number of players as this time last year. Just not the same spending to achieve it.
Curious!
On the numbers, he has identified the gaps this year with a years knowledge. So has looked to strengthen the squad.
Can't see many more coming in unless quite a few go. Think we only need a CB.
This changes if we sell, which would mean Tav or Morelos. We will want big money for either. If Tav goes, I would like us to get the Killie LB, moving Flanagan over to his natural side to compete with Polster.
If Morelos goes, which I think unlikely, sure SG and team will have a couple of names ready.
If you can get the quality you need cheap or free, no point in wasting money. We may need it next time round.
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