Why Rangers should close the gap without spending heavily

[Rousseau 9,361]

While Rangers continue to trail rivals Celtic at the top of Scottish football, here’s how the narrative will continue to play out. Former Rangers player/manager is invited to sit down with the media. Former player/manager is asked how Rangers will close the gap on Celtic. “Investment” says former player/manager. Rinse, repeat.

 

It’s almost like 2012 to 2016 never actually happened. Like the way to fix the ills of the Ibrox club is to throw yet more money down a dark hole, because that’s really what they’re suggesting. Either that or, as Maurice Johnston stated earlier this week, they want Dave King to put his hand in his own pocket and spend himself.

 

Being asked to write big fat cheques is the everyday life of a football chairman, and they should all know this coming in. But you cannot demand a man plough in millions of pounds from his own money. King hasn’t helped himself by boasting about a £30 million war chest, which he now suggests was meant to cover additional costs rather than just bloat the playing squad. However, there are far worse alternatives if “sugar daddy” is the route you seek. Just ask Hearts supporters.

 

Rangers are still struggling to get themselves on the straight and narrow financially, so directing representatives with briefcases full of cash away from Ibrox in search of the best available players on the continent isn’t really an option.

 

Celtic haven’t even spent all that much, yet. They probably will in the near future with a massive influx of Champions League money coming in. But, at this stage, they’ve spent £500k on Moussa Dembele, £3.5million on Scott Sinclair, £2.8m on Eboue Kouassi, a small fee for Dorus de Vries and around £1m on Cristian Gamboa. One of those players has just arrived and has yet to start, another hasn’t been seen since the autumn, and the last is a back-up right back. The two players who’ve made a massive contribution, at a cost £4million between them, is Sinclair and Dembele.

 

Other than their input, Celtic’s terrific season has been built of contributions from players who were already at the club from last season. That’s what makes it such a terrific job by Brendan Rodgers, and why it’s unfair to paint the success in comparison to Rangers as the benefit of money in football. As any Celtic fan will gleefully point out, Joe Garner cost three times as much as Moussa Dembele.

 

We’ve yet to have an indication of what transfer market Pedro Caixinha will prefer as he searches to pluck a few diamonds from the rough with the resources at his disposal, but avoiding Mark Warburton’s penchant for continuing returning to League One and League Two in England may be a start.

 

Get consistent

 

Regardless of what Celtic spend, a Rangers team on their current budget should not be third in the Ladbrokes Premiership table. This is what so many pundits seem to miss when they talk about the financial gulf. There are two gulfs and they always seem to forget the other: the financial gulf between Celtic and Rangers, and the financial gulf between Rangers and everyone else.

 

Rangers should not need a pot of gold to score a victory, any victory, against Ross County in three attempts. This is the tremendous advantage given to either half of the Old Firm; if, at the start of any particular season, they lack the funds to compete with their rivals in terms of player recruitment. They should still be able to compete with them in the league table by virtue of being markedly better than the rest of the competition.

 

Of course, the weaker you are the more prone you’ll be to an odd slip-up, while games between the two clubs are unlikely to swing in Rangers’ favour if there is a massive financial gulf between the pair. However, I say repeat this point again: the gap should not be 33 points!

 

Pray for change

 

Imagine a Hibs fan in the aftermath of the 2012 cup final. Or, to take it forward a little bit, imagine how they felt after watching Hearts win the Scottish Championship while they remained in the second tier. “What’s the point?” must have been muttered by more than a few. Now, the Hibees are on the course for the second tier title, they’ve won the Scottish Cup and are currently on the best run of results against their rivals since the 1970s. Things change.

 

Celtic are on a historically great season. They look on course to go the entire domestic campaign unbeaten, something that’s never happened before since the league expanded to more than just 18 games per league term, as it was in the 1890s. While this writer would certainly not like to back against them to lose any particular match, history would suggest it’s a feat that’s not going to be repeated twice.

 

Right now it seems inconceivable Celtic will fall from their perch in the foreseeable future. But football swings from one direction to the next in unpredictably ways. Rangers better just hope it swings back in their direction before 2021.

 

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/rangers/why-rangers-should-close-the-gap-without-spending-heavily-1-4396374

[Waltersgotstyle 297]

I've said this time and time again.

[JFK-1 1,671]

It wont cost a fortune to construct a team capable of beating everything in that league but them on a consistent basis. Do that and it comes down to the matches between the two and we just proved we're already capable of going to their patch and coming away with a result.

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

I don't think we need to worry about spending heavily.

[Waltersgotstyle 297]

I don't think we need to worry about spending heavily.

 

Let's wait and see before being so negative - IMO the board backed Warburton pretty well in the summer. Hopefully they will do the same with Pedro.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Waltersgotstyle

[Gaffer 1,665]

We just need three positions filled to have a team capable of challenging: centreback; defensive midfielder; and forward. We then need a bit of fortune as far as injuries go. If Rossiter can keep himself fit it'll be as good as a new signing and I've got big hopes for that young boy. He's as good as anyone we could have to fill the midfield role and then hopefully Pedro has some ideas up his sleeve for forward and centre back.

 

We should be in good shape then for next season. I still think the overall squad will be a bit light to challenge for the league title but it'll be a good building block towards a really serious challenge the season after.

[pete 2,499]

We just need three positions filled to have a team capable of challenging: centreback; defensive midfielder; and forward. We then need a bit of fortune as far as injuries go. If Rossiter can keep himself fit it'll be as good as a new signing and I've got big hopes for that young boy. He's as good as anyone we could have to fill the midfield role and then hopefully Pedro has some ideas up his sleeve for forward and centre back.

 

We should be in good shape then for next season. I still think the overall squad will be a bit light to challenge for the league title but it'll be a good building block towards a really serious challenge the season after.

 

Are you not contradicting yourself Gaffer in saying we need to strengthen 3 positions to challenge for the league and then saying we would be to light to challenge for the league. Surely we would then need to strengthen more than 3 positions.

[Gaffer 1,665]

Are you not contradicting yourself Gaffer in saying we need to strengthen 3 positions to challenge for the league and then saying we would be to light to challenge for the league. Surely we would then need to strengthen more than 3 positions.

 

It was very clumsy wording Pete - apologies. I meant we are three positions away from having a first eleven that's good enough to challenge, but we need a strong squad because injuries are inevitable and we don't have the strength in the squad to get through an entire season.

 

What do you think?

[Darthter 542]

We have shown over the past couple of OF games, that we CAN compete with them...maybe not consistently but more so than expected.

When folk talk about the gulf between the 2 teams, they are more often than not referring to the balance sheets. Ceptic have pulled in many millions, yet not spend all that much. Spending doesn't guarantee success - buying the RIGHT players does. This was one are that MW are 100% right about (but failed on the most part to execute).

 

I have said time & time again that we actually have a good squad of players - they have the ability, even the defence. However they simply haven't showed it on a consistent basis.

 

Hopefully Pedro is the next step on the ladder in our progression. From what I saw on Sat, the team worked well & played very well as a team - hopefully then can keep that up, win games & boost confidence - I think a run of a few clean sheets will give the defence a massive boost.

 

As it stand just now, if spending is being planned, I would like to see Hyndman at the top of the list - he has proven to be an excellent player for us.

[Oleg_Mcnoleg 50]

A consistent goal scorer and a bit of presence in central midfield would have us looking a very different prospect. Centre back might nice too. Might not be enough to beat them to the league but would be enough to beat everyone else and run them a bit closer.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Oleg_Mcnoleg