This summer will be, as Michael Beale has admitted himself, the biggest rebuild that Rangers have had for several seasons and there is no margin for error heading into his first full term as boss.
The Englishman started his work on the Ibrox squad during the January transfer window as Todd Cantwell and Nicolas Raskin arrived from Norwich City and Standard Liege respectively.
Now the process can be stepped up as Rangers count down to the close season and prepare to bid farewell to several stalwarts of the Light Blues ranks.
The coming weeks will see countless names linked with a potential move to Ibrox as Beale closes in on his targets and agents look to talk up and tout their players.
Rangers are in the market and everyone knows it. But Beale will stick to the plan that has been formulated since the first days that he replaced Giovanni van Bronckhorst midway through the campaign.
It will be an exciting summer for supporters and the prospect of a host of new arrivals and a fresh injection of talent and personality into the team will be welcomed by those who have endured rather than enjoyed another tumultuous term.
Not every name put forward will end up on the back of a jersey. The two deals that are furthest along the line, however, are the ones for Jack Butland, the on-loan Manchester United keeper, and Norwich midfielder Kieran Dowell.
Both will arrive at Ibrox on Bosman deals and will fill important places in Beale's squad. Butland is poised to be the new number one and succeed Allan McGregor, while Dowell adds further creative quality to a midfield that needs another injection of guile and goals.
READ MORE: Robby McCrorie revels his keeper inspirations and sets Rangers targets
The latest prospective signing is one that few fans will be that familiar with. A move for Dujon Sterling ticks many boxes for Beale, though, as he seeks to be reunited with the Chelsea utility man.
Sterling has spent the campaign on loan at Stoke and is able to play on either side of the defensive line or move further forward up the park. At 23 and with several seasons of first team football behind him, Sterling fits the profile of player that Beale will target in the coming months and this is an intriguing move.
Before the interest in Sterling came to light on Wednesday evening, Rangers were linked with a familiar name in the shape of striker Karlan Grant. Steven Gerrard was credited with an interest before Grant moved to West Brom from Charlton but it is understood Beale is not pursuing the 25-year-old.
READ MORE: Rangers boss Michael Beale targets Chelsea stopper Dujon Sterling
Links with Antalyaspor's Haji Wright - who is rated at around the £7million mark - have also been played down and Josh Maja is another forward that has been doing the rounds as Beale seeks to replace Alfredo Morelos and bolster his Ibrox attack.
The comings-and-goings will not just be on the park this summer. It has been a busy few weeks at boardroom and executive level after John Bennett replaced Douglas Park as chairman and started putting his plans into action.
James Bisgrove will replace the departing Stewart Robertson from the end of July but no appointment has been made to fill the sporting director position that Ross Wilson left. Rangers must also replace Bisgrove, Craig Mulholland, the head of academy, and former head of finance and football administration Andrew Dickson.
One move that will not be happening, though, concerns the B Team. Reports that Harry Watling was set to be demoted from Beale's staff to take over from David McCallum in charge of the second string have been dismissed out of hand.
Beale has a trusted core of staff around him and leans heavily on the words of John Park and Mervyn Day. It is with their assistance that he will build a team and a squad in his image as he seeks to reclaim the Premiership title next term.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel