Andy King has presented Rangers with a major problem

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Andy King has presented Rangers with a major problem

“As a manager you have to try and be as respectful and honest as possible to every player. The squad is big right now. We have 28 players with us right now. The board haven’t said and they haven’t put me under any pressure but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out the squad is too big.”

-Steven Gerrard, 24/06/19.

Yesterday Gerrard and Rangers confirmed another signing in the form of Andy King.

For someone trying to trim the Rangers squad, we have to admit Stevie is going an odd way about it.

The entire first-team roster at Ibrox is looking just a little bloated:

Allan McGregor, Wes Foderingham, Andy Firth, James Tavernier, Niko Katic, Connor Goldson, Filip Helander, George Edmundson, Jon Flanagan, Andy Halliday, Borna Barisic, Ryan Jack, Steven Davis, Glen Kamara, Joe Aribo, Scott Arfield, Greg Docherty, Jamie Murphy, Andy King, Matt Polster, Brandon Barker, Jordan Jones, Sheyi Ojo, Jake Hastie, Greg Stewart, Graeme Dorrans, Andy Halliday, Jason Holt, Eros Grezda, Jamie Barjonas, Glenn Middleton, Eduardo Herrera, Ross McCrorie, Jordan Rossiter, Jermain Defoe, Zak Rudden, Alfredo Morelos.

38 players. 10 more now than when Stevie said the squad had to be thinned. If we remove those out on loan, it reduces to 34 (Herrera, Rossiter, McCrorie and Middleton).

To quote Stevie himself it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out the squad is even bigger now than when he complained about the size.

There is just too much dead wood on the books, and Rangers have made extra signings without managing to get enough off the payroll.

Yes, the ones coming in generally appear to be of higher quality, but the flip side is the ones they’re replacing are still at Ibrox, and cost about the same.

How on earth are Rangers going to carry on with almost 20 players more than the traditional match-day squad?

It doesn’t seem a reasonable amount of excess.

This is probably nitpicking such is the work we’re doing on the pitch and the success so far of Gerrard’s methodology – but ultimately these 20-odd players are being paid and we’re getting no return for that.

Hopefully far more trimming is going to happen before the 2nd of next month.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. My concern exactly, exposed even more when counting just the CM area.

    Not sure where King fits in other than an experienced voice in the dressing room. A role I thought Dorrans was suited for.

    Docherty time on the pitch is less for sure, probably gives Aribo some guidance is the main positive.

    A decent goalscoring CAM though, surely the board think we can afford – there's no mention of how much of his wages we are picking up or how much game time he is garaunteed. If negligible, then probably savings overall if we sell Dorrans. Doubt it will be negligible considering how much he's on at LCFC but.

  2. You can`t count Rudden and Barjonas as first team players , Rudden hasn`t even played a competitive first team match .They may be around the squad but not first teamers .We need rid of Holt , Dorrans and Dodoo and if they hang on to the end on their contracts that is their right however we can`t just stand still and wait until they go or we will be talking 2020 before we improve the squad .Hopefully we can still get shot of Grezda ( who is a big signing mistake )and the likes of Barisic and Docherty who just don`t look good enough.

  3. Suspect it will take longer than that. There may be a financial hit, but contracts will run down and players will accept if they don't move they won't play and their next contract may not arrive. So they are incentivised to do something.
    But short term the unwanted will be isolated and we will have to take the hit.

  4. 1st 11: Allan McGregor, James Tavernier, Niko Katic, Connor Goldson, Jon Flanagan,Ryan Jack, Steven Davis, Joe Aribo, Scott Arfield, Sheyi Ojo, Alfredo Morelos.

    2nd 11: Wes Foderingham, Matt Polster, Filip Helander, George Edmundson, Borna Barisic, Glen Kamara, Greg Docherty, Andy King, Brandon Barker, Jordan Jones, Jermain Defoe

    Fringes(4): Andy Firth, Andy Halliday, Jamie Murphy, Greg Stewart,

    Not first team players(6): Jason Holt, Eros Grezda, Jamie Barjonas, Eduardo Herrera, Jordan Rossiter, Zak Rudden

    with GM and RM to come back from loan next year.

    Seems pretty healthy to me if we can get rid of the ones that are not going to make it. I'm honestly not sure what camp Jamie Murphy falls into tbh

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