I agree with Michael Beale’s original statement when he first arrived at Rangers in that the squad isn’t anywhere near as broken as is being made out. His record since returning to the club is more than sufficient evidence that he is right, especially after adding Todd Cantwell and Nico Raskin.
The squad that we saw on Saturday was one that was missing Borna Barisic, Filip Helander, Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo, Kemar Roofe and Raskin in terms of players who could be expected to start or at least make the match day squad, add Steven Davis to that list and we finally have the sort of depth that Ross Wilson had hoped would give Giovanni van Bronckhorst the tools to regain our title.
In January, we didn’t have to break the bank to upgrade the “first XI” with Raskin and Cantwell and I don’t think we will see the massive overhaul that some are expecting when the window re-opens. What we might see though is more money being spent on one or two players with our sporting director being creative in other areas.
One position in particular where we might have to spend decent money is on a new striker, Joel Piroe was this week added to a list of names that sees Josh Maja, Nikola Krstovic and Petar Ratkov all as potential targets. With a year left of his Swansea City contract, we would need to get the chequebook out and Sunderland’s £10million price tag on the head of Ross Stewart is the perfect example of Championship prices, the Swans valued Piroe at £20m last summer to block potential suitors from the Premier League.
Piroe has 14 goals this season and 38 in total since joining from PSV Eindhoven and the Netherlands youth international won’t be short of offers. If we want to improve the team though, the 23-year old is the type of player that we need to be recruiting – if the price is right.
The defence looks pretty good now that Ridvan Yilmaz and John Souttar are back, the midfield is clearly better with the additions of Cantwell and Raskin, spending money doesn’t always guarantee success but, if we want to minimise risk, it can certainly help when buying proven quality.