A year ago, well, when the January transfer window closed, it looked as though we had done enough to supplement Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s squad and retain the Scottish Premiership title.
Aaron Ramsey was a household name despite his recent issues at Juventus and was the fabled number eight that we had all been crying out for, an Old Firm opener was as good as it got, an early departure in the same game summing up his time at the club. The less said about Seville the better.
Amad Diallo might not have been a name familiar to every Rangers fan but it didn’t take long for his reputation and potential to surface, a player who could one day cost Manchester United £37million was surely going to be good enough for Scottish football and finally the solution to the right-hand side of our attack – a goalscoring debut ended with his defensive teammates fluffing their lines. He was given a run of games too late after an Old Firm derby in which he wasn’t the only one to shrink under the pressure saw him dropped from the starting XI.
James Sands arrived on loan and has subsequently returned to New York City ahead of schedule, a clever deal making it a risk free transfer, the USA international didn’t really hit the ground running and never managed to show what he was capable of being frequently thrown in to makeshift defences.
Then there is Mateusz Zukowski, who returned to Poland just six months after signing and who will be back at Rangers in the summer, the powerful right-back made just one appearance for Rangers as we looked to replace the departed Nathan Patterson and secure a long-term replacement for James Tavernier. Adam Devine now looks to have nailed down that role.
Which leaves just one player left at the club out of five, just a year after the window closed – John Souttar.
If we are to catch Celtic at the top, transfer windows like this one can’t ever be repeated.
None are left as Zukowski won`t be back . That transfer window promised nothing to anyone who could see through the hype .An unknown Polish youngster , an inexperienced, unknown young American from the MSL , an injury prone over the hill midfielder and a young boy from Man Utd that was nowhere near their first team. They were never going to improve what we had and if you add it to the summer window where only really Davies and Colak have contributed anything then Wilsons position becomes even more untenable. And that before even looking at Itten , Simpson , Bacuna , Sakala , Wright and Roofe in previous windows .The mans a fraud.