If one pattern has emerged at Ibrox this close season, it’s been that all the ‘elderly statesmen’ have happily signed new deals (McGregor, Davis, Arfield, with Balogun wanting to but not being offered the deal he wanted) while the young asset players haven’t.

And the common denominator was contracts:

All the elders were expired this summer and eager to keep their careers at Rangers going, while the youngers all have one season left and are playing their cards close to their chests at this point.

It’s not really a shock the younger, in-demand and coveted stars (Morelos, Kent, Aribo) who are out of contract next season and who the club really want to keep are the ones who haven’t signed new deals (despite at least two of them being offered terms already) while the older folks who would either retire or move to much better clubs would have and have happily signed new deals.

In short, we are just slightly concerned that the only thing we’ve tied down are players who add no value to the squad and whose best years are far behind them.

This is not meant to be a dig – regulars know the respect we have for all four of them, and three of them are true Rangers while the one who left was a hell of a pro and loved his time here.

It’s just not terribly progressive at this point from the club.

Gio obviously had a say, his opinion rather mattering, but at the end of the day even he effectively admitted these decisions were down to the players, confirming McGregor was the one who had the right to make the call for himself.

We’re not whining – if Gio trusts these guys’ judgement and ability to keep going, we do too – we just have natural concerns the squad is aging, the assets haven’t yet committed and we’re yet to see proper new names.

As we said earlier, we have just over a week till preseason starts, and it would be really nice to see a signing or two arrive this week.

Word is, that is exactly what’s happening – things will definitely look rosier in that case.

We watch and wait.