Regardless of what happens this season, the next window is the big big BIG one.

The summer window, every year since 2018 aside 2021, has seen Rangers spend between £11M and even £17M last summer, with Steven Gerrard getting £35M over his three and a half years at Ibrox.

He got nothing in ’21, and decried that lack of investment, before Giovanni van Bronckhorst then spent the most of any Rangers manager in a single window since the days of Dick Advocaat, with a staggering £15M shelled out on Ridvan (£6M), Davies (£4M), Matondo (£3M) and Colak (£2.5M), among others.

The following summer under Michael Beale was even bigger, £17M spent on Danilo (£6M), Dessers (£6M), Cifuentes £1.5M) and Lammers £3M) among another host of players alongside them.

That left current manager Philippe Clement without a bean in January.

It was, financially, abysmal, with no spending power at Ibrox at all.

We did have cash, we understand around £3M, but we simply refused to spend it at all, preferring to preserve it for the summer.

In the end January got us, it now looks, 3 decent players, all young, all filled with potential.

But this upcoming summer is the real McCoy.

While we hoped for something of an overhaul in January, it wasn’t logistically possible. No one was out of contract, and permanent signings were hard to make, especially on Rangers’ shoestring budget.

But this summer?

This is the big one for Clement’s Rangers legacy.

This is the one where a glut of the players are out of contract, where the manager WILL be given big money to do things, and where the recruitment staff will seriously look at a massive shake up of the squad, regardless of how good our defence and midfield currently appears to be.

Even if we do win 56, we cannot make the error of 55 and rest on our laurels selling pin badges and not bothering seriously with the squad. We absolutely screwed that summer, investing nothing and giving Steven Gerrard no chance in 21/22.

We will have to invest majorly in some new talent and especially get some established experienced names who add a lot to the squad.

There is of course the small matter of Diomande and Cortes. £8M+ has already been ringfenced for them, just as it was for James Sands and Malik Tillman back in the day, in the event of Rangers keeping the players on.

That cuts into half of the summer budget already, so we’d better hope these two shine and show they’re worth that kind of money.

Which leaves a roof of about £10M tops, and Clement will want to use that wisely.

That’s before sales of course – Rangers may well sell a player or two this summer and gain valuable funds.

But the point is this summer is Clement’s true squad marker. This is his chance to actually cut loose the chafe he doesn’t want, get in the quality he does, and finally nurture the squad he genuinely truly wants.

Of course we know Clement’s model – he takes the players he’s given by the club, he operates with the resources given him.

But he still gets a say, and this summer will see what we hope will be his proper blueprint on Rangers.

Never know, it might be with 56 and a treble behind us…