Michael Beale has made some major statements in his European squad for this season’s Europa League Rangers campaign, and how you interpret it is completely up to you.
Out go Ridvan Yilmaz, Leon Balogun and continuing to be omitted is Jon McLaughlin, while in come Ben Davies, Tom Lawrence and Kemar Roofe.
The full squad reads:
Jack Butland, Robby McCrorie, Kieran Wright, James Tavernier, John Souttar, Connor Goldson, Dujon Sterling, Ben Davies, Borna Barisic, John Lundstram, Ryan Jack, Jose Cifuentes, Nico Raskin, Cyriel Dessers, Tom Lawrence, Todd Cantwell, Sam Lammers, Rabbi Matondo, Abdallah Sima, Scott Wright, Kemar Roofe, Danilo
Every single Ibrox summer signing (bar Balogun of course, and Kieran Dowell) is in there, despite indifferent performances from the majority of them, and the omission of Yilmaz, Dowell and the Nigerian could mean a few things.
Could Beale be saving these three for domestic campaigns, keeping them fresh for as many home matches as possible given the injury histories Yilmaz and Balogun especially have had?
Or is this is a bit of a snub to all three, a suggestion that he’s not happy with them?
In theory, 56 should be the priority this season – Rangers have a free shot at the League Cup with no Celtic there, and a domestic trophy or two is critical. We certainly want to see good things from a strong Rangers squad on the home front.
And of course there’s a lot to be said about the homegrown player allocation; there’s five Scottish players in this group, and that probably explains a lot about Scott Wright’s rather pointless inclusion when he’s probably not going to play much.
It’s hard to know what Beale is prioritising with this list – he’s included all his heavy hitters, every single one of them, but Yilmaz and Balogun may feel a spot hard done by not to have a place themselves, while Dowell has, in truth, been rather average.
Especially given Davies and Wright are there.
Michael Beale’s management will continue to baffle us.
Can’t believe the money we’ve spent, even the players brought in and we’re going into Europe with the exact same defenders that got absolutely pummelled in Europe last year! I know it’s not Champs League, but the teams that done it last year are in it too bar Napoli!
Leaving out Balogun ??? Wow !! Just when you think Beale cant F anything else up.
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