Rangers accounts have painted a healthy picture of the future of the club and a realisation that, despite their flaws, the board are doing the right thing in terms of making sure that we are on solid ground for the years to come.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s David Murray made one last attempt at chasing Champions League glory and with it, we saw Dick Advocaat backed to previously unheard-of levels – until now.
Ange Postecoglu arrived as Celtic manager last summer, a relative unknown with a playing style and philosophy that could go one of two ways. As it is, after a sticky start, he has lost just one league game in the year that Giovanni van Bronckhorst has been manager in the opposite Old Firm dugout.
#CelticFC spent £38m on player purchases in 2021/22 after Postecoglou’s arrival, easily a club record, including Jota, Carter-Vickers, Furuhashi, Starfelt, Bernabei, Abada, Juranovic, Giakoumakis, O’Riley, Hatate and Hart. The gross outlay in the last 5 years was £95m. pic.twitter.com/h4MUUETDEa
— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) November 14, 2022
Praise from the media about his philosophy and style of play is warranted but what has helped his cause is being able to spend £38million on players since he took over from Neil Lennon, as reported by The Swiss Ramble on Twitter. That’s £38m in three transfer windows. More than Steven Gerrard spent in his four years combined.
Compare this to the £7.5m that Gerrard and Gio got over the same period and it’s pretty obvious why we are having the problems that we are currently having. They wouldn’t have extended Allan McGregor, Steven Davis or Scott Arfield’s contracts, they would have gone out and bought fresh legs who were better suited to the manager’s game plan.
We cut corners and played it safe. And it has backfired spectacularly.
The best example is in the forward areas. They have added depth and goals whilst we have four or five players all failing to hold down a regular place on the right-hand side. It’s a sad state of affairs, but their backups would start for us now and improve the first-choice XI.
We need to match this output. Not necessarily in terms of gross spending, but in terms of quality. The best example is Rabbi Matondo who cost more than Celtic paid for Reo Hatate, Matt O’Riley, Georgios Giakoumakis and Sead Haksabanovic. When we do spend, we need to get it right and one man is responsible for this – Ross Wilson.
Rangers should be shopping in the same markets, given our respective player trading models, so why have we missed out on so many bargains?
A manager can only work with the tools they are given, however, this doesn’t excuse Gio who has made a lot of mistakes. Until we sort out our recruitment though, we will continue to tread water and have the same problems on the park as we have seen all season.