If the latest information is accurate, Rangers’ summer turnover is into territory borderline unprecedented in modern times for this club.
Aside the huge exodus in 2015 when a glut of Rangers’ old 2012- contracts were done and Mark Warburton came in to overhaul the side for a proper assault at the Championship, this club has rarely to never seen this level of change in a summer period.
The only other example would be the very end of the Walter Smith 9IAR era which basically saw new manager Dick Advocaat more or less buy a completely new squad.
Back then 14 came in, 15 went out, and that was effectively the same as in 2015, give or take.
And we’ve already seen 8 leave this time around, including Steven Davis and Malik Tillman.
Who else seems to be going?
Well, we know Fashion Sakala, Scott Wright, Glen Kamara, Antonio Colak and Robby McCrorie have all either asked to leave, or are working on deals for themselves to find pastures new, and we doubt it will only be them.
Which means, at this stage, 13 players could exit with more following.
We recall derision when Ibrox Noise suggested up to 20 players could be on their way out this summer – we can’t be sure it will reach that number, but clearly there is a massive flux going on and Michael Beale is making significant changes to Rangers’ squad.
Now, the big difference between this and Dick Advocaat is simply money – Advocaat had millions to splurge on world class players – Arthur Numan, Michael Mols, GVB, Reyna, and, ok, Tore Andre Flo all came in, five players, for a combined cost of £42M alone. That’s only 5 of the 14 or so he signed.
Beale cannot play with those numbers, he has managed to make his summer £8M budget spread to a sensational 7 players, and that’s not half bad money management – but to sign anyone else, he needs more money, and that’s sales.
The point of the Advocaat reference is that £5M doesn’t get you today what it got in 1998. Today it gets a decent striker like Dessers, not a world class talent like Mols. So any fans hoping for Beale’s Rangers Revolution to secure the same kind of impact as Wee Dick’s did are being overly optimistic.
We can change the whole squad, but to get in talent of the calibre Advocaat signed would, literally, set Rangers back about £300M today. And you know that’s not even an exaggeration. Numan would have been a £40M left back in the modern age, ditto Ronald De Boer.
So instead we have to accept a lot less.
Can it usurp Celtic? Well Advocaat was up against utter diddies at Celtic. John Barnes then Joseph Venglos, anyone?
We are up against a well-oiled squad with a decent manager – it will not be as easy as Advocaat had it.
But it will be a lot of fun seeing how Beale’s new squad and setup performs.
I recall the article you posted and like a lot of others thought 20 maybe you were exaggerating, but look just like your 11 point plan your not going to be far off in your guesstimating. 👏👏 💙💙
If Beale ,Bisgrove and Bennett land Danillo and Pannzo and Cufuentes whilst selling Colak Sakala and Kamara then maybe even Tav and Barasic then it will be massive. The Advocaat comparison is a good one on the money and of course the standard of class and quality but as you say the other lot are not as good at the moment as they really think they are, as we threw matches at them , that won’t be acceptable or happening this season. Onwards 56.
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