After informing us there would be no immediate business at Rangers, club source 4lads tried to clarify that this wasn’t as fatalistic as initially reported, only to then confirm themselves that they meant more or less exactly what they said.
Ibrox Noise reported this as being transfers suspended, and while that might have been fractionally misleading, it also wasn’t – we will see no new signings or exits for the next little while and can only hope things will be done by the end of the month.
To clarify what 4lads followed up with:
“Rangers remain active & have several targets in the transfer market
Movement is expected both in & out the club
Whilst anything may not be ‘imminent’ (as in next few days) more business is expected in the coming weeks”
So exactly what was said – there will be no business secured any time soon, and we’re likely looking at the end of July before anything can/will be completed or announced.
And the end of July will be the start of the Champions League for real, not to mention the start of the new domestic season (3rd of August) and that’s cutting it close for ‘gelling’.
In simple terms, what we have currently is more or less what we’re going forward with for the immediate term, and we can’t say that’s terribly reassuring.
Rangers’ plan was a big summer turnover, to ship out a tonne of surplus and sell a bunch of players who were unneeded – aside Robby McCrorie, it just hasn’t happened, and while the transfer window has a while to run, business needs to be done early to prepare for the start of the new campaign.
No one at Ibrox thinks Rangers are remotely ready for the new season, and yes, we noted Philippe Clement’s repetition of ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ cliché, which smacks of making excuses already.
As things stand, Rangers are merely fending Killie and Hearts off for second place, we are nowhere near ready to push Celtic for the title, and unfortunately unless some massive things happen before the end of the window, we’re not convinced that’s going to change much.
We are weaker now than we were last season.
Work critically needed ASAP.