Despite the figures being banded about, some of the suggested fees that Rangers paid for the privilege of Aaron Ramsey’s company are way off, sources close to the club put the real figures at closer to a weekly wage matching our top earner with no other financial outlay.
Every fan was excited when the Juventus international arrived on loan until the end of the season, why wouldn’t they be, a genuinely top class midfielder was coming to add goals and assists at a time when it was needed most, unfortunately, it hasn’t quite worked out like that.
He was always going to need time to get up to speed and everything seemed to be going according to plan leading up to him starting against Annan Athletic in the Scottish Cup, however, this has been his only start to date and four weeks after signing, it will still be his only start and with all due respect to Annan, we probably could have coped without him for that one.
It was definitely a gamble worth taking but, after suffering a knock in the first leg against Borussia Dortmund, he had to sit out the draw against Dundee United where his quality could have made the difference, it was expected that he would be fit and available for the second leg but he was ruled out by the manager on Wednesday – cue frustrated Rangers fans.
It’s getting pretty close to the point when signing Ramsey becomes harder and harder to justify, at the time I wrote that we would only truly know at the end of the season if it had been worth it but – given the wages he is on – there will continue to be questions asked until he starts playing, and performing, regularly.
We didn’t sign Aaron Ramsey to play the last 10 minutes of games when we were already comfortably in front.