What’s absolutely clear is Rangers will 100% need to completely overhaul the goalkeeper farce at the club this summer, with a desperate situation of too old, too injured and too rubbish punctuating the options we currently have.
Ibrox Noise takes you through the three men in the shirt and where things currently are:
Allan McGregor:
We love him, always will, arguably one of the club’s best three goalies in our history, maybe even the best, but his race is absolutely run now. Aged into his 40s he’s nothing left to give, with no reaction time left, few saves worth speaking of, and a justified place into the Hall of Fame but he needs to quit. The problem is, right now, he can’t. He’s still our best/only choice. And that’s part of the tricky situation at Ibrox at the moment.
Jon McLaughlin:
Ibrox Noise has come under fire this season for labelling McLaughlin the worst goalie this club has ever had, with a few folk quoting Cammy Bell, Steve Simonsen and Lee Robinson among others, but these signings were when Rangers had few options otherwise, while we could have signed a lot better this time around than a League One reject. McLaughlin’s goodwill among fans (who praised the decision to make him number one, something we at the Noise strongly opposed) has gone and most have recognised that in normal circumstances, McLaughlin is simply the worst goalie we’ve ever had. And we gave him a new contract. Words fail us. So, no, he’s not an option.
Robby McCrorie:
Strangely labelled as injured despite frequently at training, we don’t know or understand the deal with McCrorie. Once lauded as the next big thing and the natural successor to McGregor, the 25-year-old still isn’t being given a chance despite the two alternatives being so insufficient, but for now we have no choice but to run with the ‘injured’ angle. He thrived in that famous win at Ibrox v Celtic which makes it all a bit more mysterious. Either way, even when he wasn’t ‘injured’ he was still not being used. No wonder he was linked with moves away. Is the summer his time to finally make the step up?
New additions:
We’re being linked with one or two new stoppers, Preston’s Freddie Woodman among them and Norwich’s Angus Gunn another. Feel we dropped the ball more than a spot by letting former Dundee Utd then free agent Benjamin Siegrist slip through our hands and go to Celtic, while doing similar with ex-Fenerbahce man now Eyüpspor (out on loan though) stopper Berke Ozer.
It’s clearly an area that needs major work this summer, because if we go into next season still with McGregor, McLaughlin and McCrorie, we’re in major trouble!