Steven Davis on a return to Ibrox Rumour!

[Gaffer 1,665]

I'm clearly in the minority here.  If he's a free transfer and doesn't cost valuable resources, then fair enough but this is not (IMO) how we should be building up to a challenge for the league.  He will be very unlikely to be able to perform in midfield beyond his current age.  I understand the game is not as technical in Scotland, but it is just as quick and if his legs go he won't be able to perform every week.  If we want to compete with Celtic we need players who are able to match the skill and work rate in every game.  Davis would just use up valuable game time for our other younger players that we need to develop for the longer term challenge.

 

I suspect Southampton's stats are showing that he can't keep up with the pace and hence why he's not playing as much.  It's just a natural thing to happen for a midfielder.  Of all the positions, it's the one which is affected most by age, and in particular the loss of speed and stamina.

 

I always liked Davis and thought he's been terrific for Southampton, but I'm not convinced he's what we need now, for many of the same reasons as Naismith.

[craig 5,199]

Scott Brown is still doing well enough at Celtic and he is only 6 months younger than Davis.

 

Davis appears to be one of those players who has the physical capabilities to continue playing for a few years yet.  His physical nature isn't sliding at Southampton, they are just preferring other players to him presently.

 

The majority of us talk about not being able to take a gamble - I don't think that Davis would be a gamble for us in the slightest - you know exactly what you get with him and he always gives everything.  Brown certainly wouldn't have any easy games playing against Davis.

 

If we could get Niko off the books (sad to say but he is done) then Davis would be an improvement but at no additional cost (probably).

[Gaffer 1,665]

56 minutes ago, craig said:

Scott Brown is still doing well enough at Celtic and he is only 6 months younger than Davis.

 

Davis appears to be one of those players who has the physical capabilities to continue playing for a few years yet.  His physical nature isn't sliding at Southampton, they are just preferring other players to him presently.

 

The majority of us talk about not being able to take a gamble - I don't think that Davis would be a gamble for us in the slightest - you know exactly what you get with him and he always gives everything.  Brown certainly wouldn't have any easy games playing against Davis.

 

If we could get Niko off the books (sad to say but he is done) then Davis would be an improvement but at no additional cost (probably).

I'm glad you used Brown as an example, because he proves the point about midfielders.  I think he's looking a shell of the player he was and I'd expect him to continue to deteriorate quickly next season.

 

Do you really think that Southampton would 'prefer other players' if he was still as fast, sharp,and strong?  I doubt it.

 

I agree however that it would be good to get Nico off the wage bill, but why settle for replacing him with another older player?  I don't think we're disagreeing too much.  I think we agree that he is towards the end of his career and that he is now likely to deteriorate.  All we are disagreeing about is how long he'd be able to perform for us in the SPL.  I don think think we would get more than a year, which to me would be a valuable time to improve a younger player.

 

Its these same decisions that negatively affected us coming up through the leagues.  We need to stop being a retirement home and start developing value in our players for the longer term good of the club.  A year of game time is valuable and we need to give it to someone who can generate value and offer more of a longer term return on investment.

[DMAA 3,603]

With so much focus on his age it's easy to forget this is someone who's played 21 games this season in the best league in the world (and 2 in the cup), 90 minutes in most of those, let's not exaggerate. If he's managing that at 33 it's reasonable to assume he can perform at a high level in Scotland for another couple of years.

 

My concern is his position. We are pretty overloaded in there already really. Docherty, Jack and Dorrans all expect to be playing every game, not to mention McCrorie who many think should stay in midfield. James MacArthur is surely an optimistic target on a bosman for the summer too.

 

As I've said I'd prefer to treat signings as investments, but imagine getting Davis for a nominal fee and McArthur and Arfield on bosmans in the summer, with Kranjcar, Miller, Halliday and Pena leaving.

 

 

[pete 2,499]

Every product has a sell by date. Time to move on to younger talent.

[scotjo 19]

I would like him in, he would be quality and better than any in the yahoo’s midfield, can understand looking at younger players but it’s not always the way to go, think Murty a bit fixated on younger players.

Every case on it’s own merits, 2 years out of Davis could be gold.

Also think for all the good signings in the window we are still a bit detached and someone in midfield who can play a bit and drag the team together to instruct them what to do from the middle of the pitch and drive us on is what we are lacking.

Edited March 2, 2018 by scotjo

[Bill 13,717]

I've always admired Steven Davis but I think if we are going to be the club we want to be then we need to stop turning to ex-players and older players. Experience doesn't need to mean over thirty. 

 

One thing that has characterised Rangers these last many years has been a failure of leadership in identifying good young playing talent or effective management throughout the club. Graeme Souness was probably the last truly inspiring appointment to the manager's office. Perhaps appointing Walter was also inspired but perhaps it was a cop out that got lucky. Advocaat was only really about money and everyone else was less than uplifting. 

[Gaffer 1,665]

12 hours ago, Bill said:

I've always admired Steven Davis but I think if we are going to be the club we want to be then we need to stop turning to ex-players and older players. Experience doesn't need to mean over thirty. 

 

One thing that has characterised Rangers these last many years has been a failure of leadership in identifying good young playing talent or effective management throughout the club. Graeme Souness was probably the last truly inspiring appointment to the manager's office. Perhaps appointing Walter was also inspired but perhaps it was a cop out that got lucky. Advocaat was only really about money and everyone else was less than uplifting. 

I am nodding my head in agreement with you Bill and then I realised that this is 30 years we've had this issue.  Thirty years!  I dont think many will disagree either.  Souness was an inspirational appointment, but I wonder if that type of impact is even possible to achieve these days.  Maybe it's time for a quiet man like Murty to grow into the role, but whatever happens we need to build value in the club and that means building value in players and winning things.  I don't see that happening with over thirties players.

[Unicorn 206]

I’ll never understand people who judge players solely on how old they are.

 

Davis is a fine player, I’d rather proven ability over potential any day.

[DMAA 3,603]

I think there are two primary tactics Rangers can use in the transfer market to get back to competing with Celtic.

 

The first is scouting out young players who we can develop and sell on for a major profit (Morelos type signings, and what Celtic have done for years). The best thing about this is it can transform the financial picture in a short space of time.

 

The second tactic is taking advantage of the club's standing with many players, primarily players who support Rangers (Murphy, Docherty, James MacArthur, Scott Arfield etc) but also Scottish players who are particularly attracted to the prospect of being Rangers players (Cummings, Lee Wallace, Russell Martin etc). The primary benefit of this tactic is it allows you to sign a higher calibre of player than would otherwise be possible, and normaly on discounted wages.

 

Davis fits into the second category, and I think Mark Allen has been very clever to use this tactic so far with signings of much higher quality than Rangers would otherwise have been possible, and as long as it doesn't mean the first tactic is neglected (because making money fast is vital just now) I'd be happy with a signing like Davis.

 

Caixhinha abandoned common sense and didn't use either tactic, signing average players who knew nothing about Rangers on very inflated wages and for inflated fees, Herrera and Pena in particular.