Giovanni van Bronckhorst made a firm prediction that he will be happy with his squad at the end of the transfer window, hinting that further additions could follow.
So far, James Sands has arrived from New York City in MLS as well as the coveted loan capture of Amad Diallo from Manchester United. A pre-contract was also sorted for John Souttar of Hearts.
Going the other way, the departure of Juninho Bacuna to Birmingham City has already concluded, with a few others on the fringes positioned for the exit. So far, none of Rangers major assets have been the subject of serious attention and that is how we want this month to end.
When quoted about transfer activity, Gio gave a very interesting response.
At the press conference yesterday, on the eve of the trip to Dingwall, the manager spoke of an element of confidence as well as an intriguing final comment of activity still to follow:
“We can still do some business but I don’t know. Anything can happen, especially in the last days of the transfer window, sometimes it gets a little bit crazy.”
“I hope, for us, it stays calm but you never know. We will see in a couple of days how our squad will be for the remainder of the season but I’m confident we will leave this window better than we started it.”
Plan
All of Rangers business will have been scheduled. There is little to no chance that a decision will be made today or tomorrow that hasn’t been part of the plan all along this month.
So what could follow?
The early arrival of Souttar is quite likely and will come down to what Hearts want to do. A deal is there to be done but only if the Edinburgh club are realistic in terms of the fee that they will take to bring the matter to an end.
Another link is that of James McAtee, the highly rated Man City youngster with Rangers said to be leading the chase. Any further arrivals would be a late surprise.
The question of finance and budgets will arise soon given the relatively low amounts spent but if prime targets aren’t available now, it makes more sense to pull the trigger in the Summer.
With just over 48hours to go until the end of the window, no main players will be leaving unless silly money is involved. We don’t want to be losing the key players – think Kamara, Aribo, Kent, etc – but every player has their tipping point price, especially for those with deep pockets in the Premier League. That is always the worry even at this late stage.
As it is, let’s go with the confidence of the boss.