Review – Rangers summer window – our verdict

Rangers’ summer transfer window is now over, and it’s time for Ibrox Noise to review the incomings and outgoings of the past 3 months.

Good? Bad? Indifferent? Let’s find out.

Outgoings:

Jordan Jones, George Edmundson, Greg Stewart, Bongani Zungu, Jamie Barjonas, Glenn Middleton, Jake Hastie, Niko Katic, and Cedric Itten.

Some of these were permanents, some were loans.

None of them had a future under Steven Gerrard, and some were outright cast out. Whether fans are happy with the exits, it’s a lot of players off the bill. Sadly, not including Brandon Barker yet…

Incomings:

John Lundstram, Fashion Sakala, Nnambi Ofoborh and Juninho Bacuna.

Lundstram:

Hasn’t started too well, and isn’t a favourite among fans despite the CV he arrived with. Has a lot of work to do to win over the support but all in good time. 4/10

Sakala:

Pretty much the same as Lundstram – not helped in his case by injury and quarantine. He’s had a stuttered start to life at Ibrox, and it’s ironic because his debut v Madrid hinted at so much more. 5/10

Ofoborh:

Poor sod has a heart issue and seems nowhere near the first team. May have been a mistake of an addition but time will tell. N/A

Juninho Bacuna:

Wasn’t exactly signed from a top side, but his CV is good. He is a creative defensive midfielder, a playmaker, with good vision and has a fine record from his time in Holland. Another one we cannot make an opinion on till he has at least made a few appearances. N/A

Overall:

The best thing about this window was who we actually kept (more on that later) but we have to say the incomings work in the window wasn’t good enough. We stated clearly in Spring we had to enhance this squad with signings that would progress us into the CL, and would keep us ticking over for 56. We knew this season would be tougher than last, and regulars will know we preached that repeatedly.

Unfortunately the summer work just wasn’t good enough. And that CL exit is some early evidence.

We got rid of some decent players fans like (Jones, Itten, Katic) and we didn’t bring in a single defender, not to mention sticking with one fans really don’t rate in Jack Simpson.

The squad is presently barely stronger than it was last season, which is not how you progress.

That said, there is of course ‘time’ for these new players to prove themselves worthy acquisitions, but then is there really? Do you get time at Rangers? No, you don’t. Fans will argue about Joe Aribo and Borna Barisic ‘getting’ time but they didn’t – they were criticised for a long time, especially Barisic, and it wasn’t till that goal in Paisley that the Croat earned some slack.

So expect Lundstram and Sakala in particular to divide fans between the ‘give him time’ and ‘ffs he stinks’ brigades.

But in terms of overall, it’s not been a great window, and it’s not been what we hoped for.

All we can do now is trust the squad and the manager to give us everything and deliver 56.