Ibrox Noise’s Ross today penned a very well-argued piece on the standard of Rangers’ signings this summer thus far.

Despite both Dujon Sterling and Kieran Dowell having minimal to no Premier League experience between them, he nevertheless expressed that the likes of Tom Lawrence and Joe Aribo also came from lower league and didn’t work out half bad, while Calvin Bassey also came as a Premier League unknown youth before the kid made us £23M.

Ross ain’t exactly wrong, but Ibrox Noise was more scathing in our assessment of Sterling himself.

Fans are divided on this – Ibrox Noise’s slightly critical piece on Sterling was well-received and few countered it, but we were slaughtered last night on the social media channels in general for suggesting our summer work thus far was underwhelming.

Quite a few arguments were made – many of which cited the notion that ‘you were probably saying that about Cantwell and Raskin as well’, which regulars will know isn’t true – Ibrox Noise strongly rated those two additions, even if they’ve exceeded even our expectations.

But the ‘give them a chance’ and ‘slating them before they kick a ball’ crowds were out in force, albeit a lot of responses did agree with our initial comment. After all the arguments we removed the thread!

So, where is the truth?

As with it all, it’s somewhere in the middle. Joe Aribo came from League One, absolutely, but he was also the best player in League One for a side that won promotion and chose us over Premier League Aston Villa.

Tom Lawrence also came from the Championship, albeit League One relegated, but he was a Wales international and had experience of a high level of football already with pressure attached.

Bassey? It took him a full season to have an impact, his opening campaign being a struggle, but he worked on himself prior to 21/22 and came back in preseason an armour-plated killing machine. He was also coming from a Premier League club and had played senior matches for them.

Dowell? Ross is right, he has U21 caps for England, and over 20 Premier League appearances, but aged 24 he’s only worth about £1.5M and we’re just hoping Michael Beale’s judgement here is bang on.

Same with Sterling – a litany of underwhelming CV and the 23-year-old doesn’t scream at us as being a massive game-changer.

But, again, Ross isn’t wrong.

So, in summary? A lot of fans are underwhelmed so far – these aren’t game-changing signings on the face of it, they feel like squad fodder and nothing special in themselves. They do not excite supporters for the bulk, with the best defence of their additions being to look at other examples of underwhelming signings that worked out.

And that’s fair enough, you can’t argue with the logic – but it means having a lot of faith and trust in the manager that these guys are better than some fans fear they are.

Ibrox Noise ourselves are divided. Some of us are convinced these additions are subpar, others are happy to big them up as better than their reputation.

All of us, naturally, want these guys to work out, because that’s what Rangers need. So as with all new signings, they get our backing completely.