With the news that Rangers domestic scout Robert Clarkson has joined the former head of scouting Andy Scoulding in leaving the club, the lack of matches to talk about has led to fans discussing the work that has been done under Ross Wilson’s supervision.
For every Calvin Bassey, there has been a Jack Simpson, but how much has success on the pitch been down to those off the pitch?
Mark Allen was credited for his role in bringing in Steven Gerrard and for signing the core of the squad that won the title in 2021, however, he also signed Eros Grezda, Brandon Barker, Kyle Lafferty and Jordan Jones. It’s safe to that the recruitment team wasn’t quite fully functional at that point.
When Ross Wilson took over the sporting director role we saw a new direction in terms of attracting talented youngsters from England as well as an improvement in the depth of the match-day squad, players like Ianis Hagi, Kemar Roofe, Leon Balogun and Jon McLaughlin all contributed enormously when regular first-choice players were unavailable.
The thing with this argument is that both sides are right. Should we have won more trophies since 2018? Yes, 100%, however, it is also a team that has won the league with an unbeaten season and made the final of a major European tournament – to say the recruitment has been poor simply can’t be justified when you consider what it has achieved – once the players are on the pitch, there isn’t much that Ross Wilson and his team can do.
The next phase though has to be replacing the players who are on big wages but who either aren’t available or who aren’t contributing enough. In particular Roofe and Filip Helander, with Ryan Jack not far behind. This is a lot of money getting paid out for not much in return and it could be better spent.
After the win against PSV in Eindhoven, our summer recruitment looked to have been a success, and yet, just a couple of weeks later it’s been deemed a failure, the truth is. probably, somewhere in the middle.