Welcome to the Ibrox Noise review of season 22/23, of all signings made over the course of this campaign now past.
So, we begin with the summer signings, and this isn’t overly complicated:
Ridvan: 6
He is showing signs of quality now, we like him, but we didn’t get value at all in that first season. All the potential in the world and we look forward to seeing more of him at Ibrox.
Souttar: 8
Generous 8 because we saw so little of him, but his performances since breaking into the team have been faultless. On those alone it would be 10 but we have to take the whole missed season into consideration.
Davies: 2
Weak, bad reader, spinless, and unconvincing, this was a gargantuan waste of £4M – very poor player and a bad piece of judgement. Biggest joke was the RTV interview when we signed him which plugged him as experienced and handing over his wisdom to younger Rangers players. Aye ok.
Tillman: 5
Flattered to deceive – disappeared in all big matches apart from a couple of UCL qualifiers, and didn’t show hunger for the club. Good stats but they were 90% against bottom-feeding teams. Most Rangers fans unhappy we’re seemingly spending £5.2M on him.
Lawrence: 4
His stats aren’t world class but he was showing promising signs before the injury. But he’s missed basically the whole season so it’s hard to be generous with him. We hope for more next season. At least he was free.
Matondo: 4
Fractional improvement lately but still a poor use of £3M – the Wales international hasn’t shown anywhere near enough and had months out injured. This one hasn’t worked out at all.
Colak: 9
Don’t care what anyone else says, he’s the most natural finisher we’ve had for years, and his all-round game is excellent. Fans started hating him in favour of ‘I want to leave Rangers Morelos’ because that’s what fans do. Aside the injury, he’s been absolutely top. Gets unfair flak from the support at times. But his stats are outstanding as is his attitude.
Now onto the winter signings:
Not hard these:
Cantwell: 10
Rarely has a Rangers signing hit the mark this well – we still remember being abused by a ‘fan’ for daring to say, after a couple of matches, that this kid was outstanding. He mocked us for overreacting. Now he sees, we hope. Exceptional talent.
Raskin: 9
Not maybe thrilled us as Cantwell has, but been great. Not put a foot wrong, been solid, hungry, and up for the fight. Hard to question this addition.
So, in conclusion, Michael Beale’s work in January was outstanding, but summer didn’t deliver enough value for money from whoever green lighted those signings. Ridvan is coming onto a game, Souttar has been outstanding in a short space of time, and Colak was by far the biggest-impact addition.
Unfortunately Davies and Matondo were duds, while Lawrence has missed the whole season with injury. Tillman isn’t as popular among the fans as Michael Beale probably thinks.
Summer was patchy, but gave us something, but overall it probably wasn’t a success. Winter was excellent.
Agree on Ridvan, and Souttar (except for OG v Celtic, so would have dropped a point for that). Agree Davies but think you are harsh on Tillman. Only 20, would you judge Lowry next seaoin as harshly? He is the age Tillman was when he came. Fee is not his fault.
Lawrence, jury is out, he was looing good before injury. Matondo is improving, remember Man City sold him for £11 million, so there is a player in there. Have to hope Beale can bring it out.
Colak, Cantwell, agree, Raskin will never look as good as Cantwell because of his position, I would score them equally.
Good article though
Souttar didn’t score an OG v Celtic mate, it was a rusty backpass.
Once again agree with all of this and it’s a clear blatant taste of reality that we all need. Let’s move forward with this spine and basic start to our rebuild . We can all see what’s needed remember if we don’t improve they will and the gap isn’t that big at the moment.
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