“Expected to leave” – some Rangers players have lost their hunger

If there’s one other stand out cause for Rangers’ bad form, particularly this season, it’s the rather obvious truth that a heck of a lot of the players in our shirt expected to leave.

Indeed, with all the interest in so many of the players, that absolutely none of them got their dream move to a PL or continental side in a big league is a patent clue as to why the guts of so many of our personnel seem absent and the only ones trying are those with something to prove.

Add to that a few players whose sell-by dates have dramatically appeared on them given their ages, and it’s a struggling squad now.

Now, we reaffirm – we are well aware we’re top of the league, but can any of us deny how absolutely rotten we are right now? We’re especially lucky Celtic are even worse, but they are a club in transition that may just click at some point. Rangers are a squad who appear on the significant decline.

Let’s look at the squad in detail and pinpoint where the issues might be.

Allan McGregor:

He threw the remaining season of his career into last campaign, and now has niggling injuries. Doesn’t look anything like his old self. Wanted to retire last year but didn’t want to lose out on fans, so stayed on. He’s 39 for Christ’s sake and close to 40. Enough said.

Steven Davis:

Another one who had a miracle season last term, helped by Ryan Jack’s presence, but age has caught up with him and he looks leggy this season. Not his fault, it comes to us all.

James Tavernier:

With no Ryan Jack to bail him out and make him look incredible, Tav is back to pre-55 form. Simple as that. Absolutely terrible defender, mostly, and not half as effective in attack now either. He wasn’t expecting to leave, though, he just misses Jack.

Connor Goldson:

The contract issues – he simply isn’t signing, and his form has been pretty poor since he got offered the deal late in Spring. He appears to be complacent, doesn’t earn his slot, and word is he’s running his deal down. There was interest but nothing came of it.

Borna Barisic:

Atalanta were said to be looking at him, but their bid wasn’t enough. And whatever the reasons behind his emotional OF end, Barisic probably did expect to be moving on this summer. This one is less obvious though and the lad has on/off injury issues. Has lost his place with his country too.

Glen Kamara:

This lad 100% expected to be playing his football in England. It didn’t happen and he’s doing to us what he did to Dundee. He’s downed tools and doesn’t care any more. Yes, not remember he got pelters at Dens Park for losing focus once he got his pre-contract move to us? Well he’s repeating that now, and wants to leave.

Ryan Kent:

He’s another one who wants to leave, not because he isn’t happy, but because of convenience. His better half is now based in England and he has to commute to get to her. He’s happy at Rangers but would be happier not having to drive 8 hours all the time. So that’s not helping matters.

Alfredo Morelos:

He’s admitted himself, he wanted the move. He didn’t get it, so he’s got to suck it up and stay here. His heart is absolutely not at Ibrox any more and he’s just going through the motions before January gets here, praying he gets the switch at that point.

Jermain Defoe:

Yes we’re including this one, to take aim at a know-it-all who smeared us pre-season for saying Defoe was past it. In fact, a few of you did. A few snidey digs at us for telling you he was finished as a player. He would only be used now in absolute striker emergencies and even then we’d probably try to avoid that. We do remember one gentleman explained Defoe would be rattling them in this season. Pretty sure he was abusive about that towards us…

Jack Simpson:

Just patently not good enough, no idea why we signed a reserve Bournemouth stopper who at 24 only had 20 senior league appearances, 8 of which were as sub. Literally a bonkers addition who isn’t anywhere near good enough to play for Rangers and it’s a bit of a joke he’s in our shirt.

Brandon Barker:

Probably unfair including him but Jack Simpson is the new Barker – a substandard player, nowhere near good enough for this club but gets many more appearances than he should. And no one knows why.

Juninho Bacuna:

This one is very harsh we know, but a bottom-of-the-table Huddersfield DM that we’re playing as a LW? We weren’t too inspired by this guy, signed in event of not getting Joey Veerman. It is of course early days but if Stevie isn’t even going to play him in the right slot, he’s got no chance.

We know, we know, this article was brutal – utterly negative and we can see that too. We also don’t apologise for calling things out as they are right now.

Football is fluid. Today’s villains can be tomorrow’s heroes. Form can turn dramatically.

And to cheer you up here’s the honourable mentions of those thriving and/or trying: McCrorie, Patterson, Helander, Balogun, Bassey, Aribo, Arfield, Hagi, Wright, Sakala, and Roofe. And Jack would be among them as would Katic if circumstances were different.

But at present, right now, the main list above is a reasonable list of why the players just don’t seem to be doing it out there. You might not agree.

But it’s all about opinions.