IT seems for every transfer that worked for Mark Warburton in his first season at Rangers, he has got one that hasn’t started so well in his second. Warburton barely put a foot wrong in his first few months at Ibrox as he assembled a squad that would go on to win the Championship at a canter.
Players with seemingly modest profiles would go on to become stand-outs in Scottish football’s second tier. Warburton, it seemed, knew what he was doing when it came to spotting, sourcing and signing players.
This season, however, it has not gone so smoothly. Looking for a higher calibre of player capable of dealing with the step-up to the Premiership has brought its own risks.
Some like Joey Barton have been unmitigated disasters. Others like Niko Kranjcar, Jordan Rossiter and Matt Crooks have been sidelined for long spells through injury, while another group including Joe Garner and Joe Dodoo have struggled to justify the fees paid for them. Of the 11 summer signings, perhaps only Clint Hill and Josh Windass have improved Rangers on a consistent basis.
Ally McCoist knows from experience how tough finding the right blend can be. One of Warburton’s predecessors, McCoist agrees that too many of the new Rangers recruits have failed to find their feet but hoped that with time most could yet come good.
“It’s always a concern because as a manager you live or die by your signings,” he said. “But I do still think it’s a little early. I think the football team will be developing over the next 18 months or so. I don’t have any doubt about that. I don’t know for sure but I imagine they will probably strengthen in the next couple of windows. There will be changes, definitely. But there have been no absolute standouts, I get that.
“The Barton thing hasn’t worked out. Kranjcar has been really unlucky, Rossiter is injured again. These are hard luck stories. But you do get judged on your signings and I would be hopeful that one or two others would step up and start playing consistently well.”
Given Rangers paid £1.5m to sign him from Preston North End, the spotlight will shine on Garner more than most. Three goals is not the sort of return Warburton would have expected from his star centre forward, a situation exacerbated by the form of Moussa Dembele across the city – a player signed by Celtic for a fraction of the cost.
“I think it’s too early to make a judgement [on Garner],” added McCoist. “The unfortunate thing for the player and the club is that Celtic have signed a wonderboy in Moussa Dembele. He’s been rightly getting all the headlines and he got another two against England Under-21s this week. Comparisons are being made and unfortunately for Rangers they are not favourable comparisons in this moment in time. But the next transfer might be. That’s the way things go with transfers. Celtic have had one or two transfers that haven’t worked either through the years. It’s tough for Joe but it’s too early to judge him.”
McCoist was not among those who thought his former club were in a position to challenge Celtic for the title this season. In fact, he admits he would not be surprised were Rangers to also finish behind Aberdeen come the end of the campaign despite their greater financial resources.
“Would anyone be shocked if Aberdeen finished second?” he asked. “I think there is too much made of budgets. When 11 line up against 11 you don’t think about budgets. You just think about your job. I get it that if you’ve got a bigger budget you should be able to get a higher calibre of player. Of course I understand that. But Aberdeen have been solidly Scotland’s second-best team for the last two seasons and I don’t think that’s going to change because they’ve got a good solid base and a good manager. The team knows what it’s about. Hearts have done exceptionally well. They went into administration and benefited from going down and rebuilding and coming back up. I always felt that these clubs would certainly be in or around Rangers unless Rangers spent a lot of money – and that Aberdeen would be potentially be better. So it would not be surprising if Aberdeen finished second.”
- Ally McCoist was at Torrance Park Golf Club to officially open their new state of the art £1.5 million clubhouse, part of a wider residential development on the site. Full details at www.torranceparkgolf.co.uk
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