Steven Gerrard has confirmed that he now has the squad size where he wants it – as long as no one else leaves.

Rangers manager had been vocal in saying the squad was too big, when it numbered around 29, but with Andy King’s loan terminated, Eros Grezda sold back to Osijek, Jamie Murphy out on loan to Burton, Barjonas to Thistle and Robbie McCrorie off to Livi, the boss now says any one else leaving would certainly need to be replaced.

Rangers have shipped out those five players, with ‘something’ in the pipeline for Greg Docherty too, but it appears the roughly 23 or 24 players Gerrard seeks as squad numbers has been reached and the group is more or less the right size.

So, in summary, Rangers’ current first-team squad:

Goals:

McGregor, Foderingham, Firth (3)

Defence:

Tavernier, Polster, Katic, Goldson, Helander, Edmundson, Barisic, Flanagan, Halliday, Patterson (?) (10)

Midfield:

Davis, Jack, Kamara, Arfield (4)

Attack:

Kent, Jones, Barker, Ojo, Aribo, Morelos, Defoe, Stewart (8)

That gives Rangers a total of: 25, or 24 if Patterson is excluded.

Those are around the numbers the manager sought, and he’s got it. We’re not exactly sure the overall balance is right, in truth, with 10 defenders, 8 attackers and just four midfielders, but these are what he was looking for.

So the squad appears, in Stevie’s eyes, to be ready.