Transfer Activity

[Guest Dw3132]

Yeah, I reckon we'd have sold Thomson this month if he wasn't injured...

 

Ferguson would probably be the best player to move on but I doubt we'd secure any more than �£1million for him and that's even if he did want to move back South which is probably unlikely.

 

I wondered if BF might look at it as one last payday...he's unlikely I'd presume to secure such a deal from Rangers again and with the money within the EPL still being high it may be his last chance at one last 2-3 year payday.

[Frankie 8,186]

Possibly mate but one of the reasons he came back here was for his family and because he supposedly missed the club so much.

 

Now, if a Newcastle or a Sunderland came in for him, then it may interest him as he wouldn't need to uproot his family but any further South than that, I doubt it.

[Guest Dw3132]

While agreeing WS has made mistakes in transfer market, I think his net spend is about �£3M, which I think is slightly less than PLG... He was about to have a negative net spend with the sale of Boyd.

 

The money from Hutton and Cuellar has made a fantastic difference.

 

Overall though the money made from the sales of Hutton/Cuellar has been used poorly when re-invested you could argue ?

 

Velicka/McCulloch/Lafferty/Beasley/Edu cost nearly 10m and you would struggle to see any of them having much of a future....thats a waste of 10m.

 

We have a team with no width / no natural full-backs and an ageing CB who's on his last legs....I just think Smith has poorly used the monies provided for building a squad capable of challenging them for the SPL title.

 

You could argue though some of that blame lies with the regime at Ibrox having no proper scouting network to actually locate any potential value. We are still apparently sniffing around NI Intl Chris Baird at Fulham...which is probably coming again from Ewan Chester being ex Fulham.

[craig 5,199]

While agreeing WS has made mistakes in transfer market, I think his net spend is about �£3M, which I think is slightly less than PLG... He was about to have a negative net spend with the sale of Boyd.

 

The money from Hutton and Cuellar has made a fantastic difference.

 

To an extent you do have to look at the transfer dealings as a whole. But, and it is a big but, it still doesn't mean he hasn't wasted money.

 

Just because you make profit on some players and losses on others to come out at breakeven doesn't mean you have done well. WS is seeing this now as he is struggling to get rid of players that are surplus to requirements.

 

Further, you could argue, his transfer dealings have made us a weaker team. His "positive transfer dealings" (i.e. profit) have been the sale of our better players whilst his "negative transfer dealings" (i.e. losses OR players not playing OR not being good enough) have been weaker players. It could be argued the other way too I guess in that he has brought in decent players (Thomson, Davis, Mendes) but the fact remains that had he not spent the copious cash on the likes of Lafferty, Edu, Miller, Velicka that our team would be either a) not needing to sell a player this month or b) strengthened due to the cash being spent more wisely.

[craig 5,199]

When thinking about how best to challenge for honours I always liked the way Souness went about it. His first priority was always to have a strong spine to the team. WS has not addressed this properly as he still has to rely on Weir for starters. You could probably say he got unlucky in that Cuellar left as Cuellar and Bougherra would be our first choice CB pairing - but still, if you need to go through a season with no back-ups to your 1st choice pairing you are asking for trouble.

[Guest Dw3132]

When thinking about how best to challenge for honours I always liked the way Souness went about it. His first priority was always to have a strong spine to the team. WS has not addressed this properly as he still has to rely on Weir for starters. You could probably say he got unlucky in that Cuellar left as Cuellar and Bougherra would be our first choice CB pairing - but still, if you need to go through a season with no back-ups to your 1st choice pairing you are asking for trouble.

 

Agree re a strong spine of your side....Good GK...2 Strong CB's / 2 Good Central Midfielders and 1 decent striker are a minimum requirement spine wise for most of the good sides....this can then be built around.

 

Our problem at Rangers is we have not built around our better players sadly...we have sold them. Add Hutton/Cuellar to the backline and we'd be a far superior side.

 

Until we get to a stage where we can build around our better players we'll always be rebuilding year on year it seems now....we cant go a Transfer Window without harming our 1st XI.

[craig 5,199]

Yep, every window seems we dismantle the 1st XI, not strengthen it. A sign of the times we are living in.

 

A back 5 of McGregor (pre head up own arse), Stevie Smith, Cuellar, Bougherra and Hutton would have been just fine by me and would have made us a more attacking force as well with Smith and Hutton overlapping.

 

The central midfield is strong in numbers and quality but, for me, lacks that vital ingredient of true flair (a Gazza). But then we have problems in the wide midfield areas and these were areas that WS should have filled last pre-season but instead decided to purchase a ton of strikers (ironically probably the strongest department of the team).

[Super_Ally 0]

Yep, every window seems we dismantle the 1st XI, not strengthen it. A sign of the times we are living in.

 

A back 5 of McGregor (pre head up own arse), Stevie Smith, Cuellar, Bougherra and Hutton would have been just fine by me and would have made us a more attacking force as well with Smith and Hutton overlapping.

 

The central midfield is strong in numbers and quality but, for me, lacks that vital ingredient of true flair (a Gazza). But then we have problems in the wide midfield areas and these were areas that WS should have filled last pre-season but instead decided to purchase a ton of strikers (ironically probably the strongest department of the team).

 

The striking department was/is strong in numbers, but not real quality.

 

Boyd/Miller/Novo/Velicka/Naismith/Fleck

 

Boyd with another for first choice. Novo back up. Naismith and Fleck potential first picks but one needs to regain full fitness the other is too young to be relied on as first choice for an entire season (age will see consistency being a problem.

 

Move on Miller and Velicka and maybe get Boyd a partner or see if Naismith can fulfill the role?

[Guest Dw3132]

The striking department was/is strong in numbers, but not real quality.

 

Boyd/Miller/Novo/Velicka/Naismith/Fleck

 

Boyd with another for first choice. Novo back up. Naismith and Fleck potential first picks but one needs to regain full fitness the other is too young to be relied on as first choice for an entire season (age will see consistency being a problem.

 

Move on Miller and Velicka and maybe get Boyd a partner or see if Naismith can fulfill the role?

 

Its criminal though Ally when you think between Lafferty/Velicka/Mhisser we spent 6.25m and you would barely get a decent striker out of the 3.

 

For that sort of spend we should have been looking for more quality in the final 3rd.....we'd be better spending 2m on a proper scouting network and 4m on a striker than buying the likes of the above.

[calscot 0]

To an extent you do have to look at the transfer dealings as a whole. But, and it is a big but, it still doesn't mean he hasn't wasted money.

 

Just because you make profit on some players and losses on others to come out at breakeven doesn't mean you have done well. WS is seeing this now as he is struggling to get rid of players that are surplus to requirements.

 

Further, you could argue, his transfer dealings have made us a weaker team. His "positive transfer dealings" (i.e. profit) have been the sale of our better players whilst his "negative transfer dealings" (i.e. losses OR players not playing OR not being good enough) have been weaker players. It could be argued the other way too I guess in that he has brought in decent players (Thomson, Davis, Mendes) but the fact remains that had he not spent the copious cash on the likes of Lafferty, Edu, Miller, Velicka that our team would be either a) not needing to sell a player this month or b) strengthened due to the cash being spent more wisely.

 

As I was only stating a fact without attaching an opinion I've no argument with you here.

 

However, I think WS did very well up until last summer and your final list only mentions players from that spending spree.

 

Weir has been very good and Ehiogu was decent enough as a stop gap and didn't cost us much.

 

Thomson has been a great signing and Naismith has shown promise. Broadfoot and Alexander have been reasonable successes.

 

Cuellar was fantastic and Cousin showed us he could cut it when he was in the mood.

 

Darcheville did well until this season and Davis was a pretty good loan signing.

 

 

Beasley wasn't bad until his injury. So kind of in between a success and failure.

 

 

On the failure side: McCulloch started well but even he admits he's lost all form.

 

Faye was laughably bad but was only a six month signing. Dailly did ok a few times filling in but it was a huge mistake to extend his contract.

 

Gow never even made it into the first team but we may end up not losing anything there.

 

Graeme Smith hasn't had a chance to feature but didn't cost us much and would have probably been an able 3rd choice keeper.

 

Andy Webster was a promising young player and cheap but he's been unlucky with injury.

 

Stephen Whittaker was very promising but just hasn't yet lived up to his billing.

 

 

 

So before the summer, it seems to me that Walter had more significant successes than failures and many of the failures didn't really cost us much. The biggest two were McCulloch and Whittaker. Beasley is the next worse but he was ok until his injury.

 

I think WS can be forgiven for Whittaker as he seemed a good signing at the time - although I thought he was well overpriced and not ready yet, an opinion which has been vindicated. He should have been able to replace Hutton but hasn't come close.

 

McCulloch was a strange one, WS valued him about 1.1M which I think was about right. However, we ended up paying about 2.7M and he's given us about 300k worth of good service. When you value a player, you have to stick with your valuation or else you can get shafted.

 

 

Then we come to last summers spending which WS seemed to have made a hash of. It seems like he thought he had a bigger budget than he had and so spend willy nilly while thinking he had plenty in the bank. It turns out that his failure to qualify for the CL means he's put us in a spot of financial bother and we have a very unbalanced and bloated squad which still leaves us with pretty much an incomplete first team.

 

Bougherra has been a success while Davis, Mendes and Miller look good on paper but haven't delivered the consistency we need. Miller and Davis also look a bit over priced.

 

Lafferty does not look like a 3.5M player and it's ironic and a bad sign that free 17 year old player from our youth system is now way in front of him. Seems like a waste of money which we are now regretting and may have to get rid of a better player to pay for him.

 

Edu has also seemed like a waste of money although he's been unlucky with injuries. The latter two look like signings for the future but we can't afford that until we have a team for the present.

 

Velicka has been a complete aberration of a signing especially as he's hardly been seen.

 

So the summer has been more failure than success and WS seemed to get it badly wrong.

 

Even if he'd just passed on Lafferty, Miller, Edu and Velica - all of which seemed like strange signings, that would be 8.5M saved of which about 4 million could have been spent on another centre back and a natural left midfielder.

 

Some may see it's easy to see in hindsight but that's insulting to those who were saying the same thing during the summer.

 

The chairman and the manager really need to show more prudence and for the moment buy what we need rather than what might be good in a couple of years.

 

If we want young players developed into the first team we should be blooding those from Murray Park rather than spending 2-3.5 million on them - unless they are really exceptional like Thomson.

 

That's what Murray Park is for - to save us that kind of cash. Would we really be worse off as a team if we'd never bought Naismith, Webster, Whittaker, Edu and Lafferty? Would we have been better blooding Lennon, Lowing, Furman, Aaron and Fleck and save the �£10M?

 

Our expensive transfers should be first choice, experienced players that really enhance the team - like Cuellar, Bougherra, Cousin and Mendes and if we can get bargains such as Weir, Alexander, Broadfoot, Boyd, Novo etc then we're sorted.