A lot of fans have been absolutely bashing Rangers’ board over this summer’s transfer window – even Gio of course seemed to have a cryptic go about it too.
However, Giovanni van Bronckhorst spent more this summer (£14M) than any Rangers manager has since the £17M Walter Smith spent in 2008/2009.
So, in 13+ years, this summer has been the most we’ve spent, and yet it’s being slaughtered – Gio’s spent more than Gerrard did any summer he was here, with the Dutchman investing around £14M on Davies (£4M), Yilmaz (£5.5M), Matondo (£2M) and Colak (£2.5M).
Those are all the addons included, so the initial fees are lower, but let’s not pretend Gio hasn’t had cash to spend.
The problem has been only Colak has delivered value for money so far, with the other three paid-for signings all struggling up to this point.
And that doesn’t fall on the board, does it?
That surely falls on recruitment and scouting? With a nod to the football Gods over who settles and who doesn’t?
John Park has been abysmal so far, with the former Celtic scout presiding over a horrible window of bad value signings. Andy Scoulding left for Spurs, himself having presided over some bad additions, and Robert Clarkson has joined him in exiting Ibrox. And Ross Wilson is coming under huge criticism for the start this season has seen – the buck of recruitment probably ends with him.
But it’s not the amount spent that’s the problem, not a lack of board support in this window – it’s what the money has actually been used on.
We needed players ready to go – sure, everyone settles at a different rate, but only Colak has hit the ground running of those three paid-for players.
Thus far we have £11M+ of summer signings sitting on the bench gathering dust.
Is that the fault of Gio? The board? Or recruitment and planning?
Better and more educated ITK-types than us are more furnished to make that call than we are, but we really don’t feel the best financially-backed window at Ibrox since Walter Smith’s days can actually be blamed from the board’s support point of view.
And the suits are hardly flavour of the month these days so it would be easy to point the finger at them over this.
But we prefer to analyse things as fairly as we can, and just because we’re not sure about some of the things the board does these days, doesn’t mean we feel they’re to blame for the bad window as well.
Hmmm….I do not get this one at all tbh .why fans are blaming the board on qaulity of signings is beyond me ,lack of funds possibly ,however surely it is up to the manager to manage and actually demand funds for players and not send out silly childish cryptic messages .
The board also may now be wondering whether to hand him any more funds in january or change things ,depending on how things go …would you be quick to hand over another 1o million to be spent on a yilmaz and davies ? or keep for a new manager .
Kinda agree with boyd ,he is looking more like a coach who picks the team and not much else at moment ,you need MASSIVE balls for gers manager job and hes not displaying any at moment maybe why lack of respect and players not pulling their weight also .
As I’ve said in the past the whole buck stops with the board, forget about the King Walter financial comparisons it’s not relevant really . GVB has surely had input as to who or what he needed , as such it’s his call in collaboration with Wilson etc.. I also said that selecting the usual failures would be the downfall of GVB . No matter who who is ultimately responsible the buck stops with the league . If we don’t win it they are all responsible .
I’ve heard tales of Wilson deciding who we sign and that Gio (or whoever) merely picks the team from the players available and coaches them. Surely no decent manager would manage under those circumstances. And what would be the point? If Wilson signs a player that the manager doesn’t rate then surely he just won’t pick him.
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