The goalkeeper position is one at Rangers that has never really been an issue under Steven Gerrard, Allan McGregor was signed early doors and has played a key role in getting us back to the top of Scottish football.
His body won’t be able to cope with the physical demands of lining up between the sticks forever though which means that we could be looking for a new number one in the summer but, this doesn’t mean Ross Wilson has to be signing any keepers.
The biggest issue we have is that Jon McLaughlin’s contract expires at the end of this season and, if we are to avoid the same mistake that Celtic made by letting Craig Gordon go and replacing him with a number of inferior quality players, he should be offered new terms as quickly as possible – ones that would reflect his increased importance to the manager and squad rather than just being seen as a back-up.
McLaughlin has never let us down when he has played in McGregor’s absence, his clean sheet record would see him start for the national team if he played more regularly, something that is well within his capabilities further down the line – looking at Gordon and his team-mate, there is no reason why he can’t continue for another 5-6 years, especially when you consider that he doesn’t have the injury history of his two elder colleagues.
Then there is Robby McCrorie. Two games, two clean sheets and in high pressure games. Against Alashkert he was relatively quiet but acquitted himself well, against Celtic, he was outstanding.
A Rangers goalkeeper can be quiet for long spells before having to make a split second decision, he was quick off his line when he needed to sweep up behind his defenders, assured in his handling and made two excellent stops to deny Kyogo Furuhashi.
McGregor himself had to bide his time to make the top spot his own – he was a couple of years older than McCrorie when he finally became undisputed number one – and we have been lucky to have him this time around, just as we are lucky to have two keepers waiting for their chance to prove that they can replace him.