Rangers have been linked with a host of players this summer facing a battle between bureaucracy, Brexit and quarantine rules when trying to get them in in time to start pre-season.
It’s be challenging in more ways than one and it’s no doubt been a factor in Rangers failing to make the group stages of the Champions League, we were, and looked, massively underprepared with several key players either unavailable or not up to speed quick enough but there wasn’t much Steven Gerrard could do short of not giving them holidays.
It has though seen the transfer strategy being brought more into light than ever before with Rangers now looking further afield in an attempt to beat the points based system being used to issue work permits, as described by Rory Smith in the New York Times:
“Rangers, for example, has started to take greater interest in players in South America, realising that while it might no longer find it easy to sign a player from a traditional market like Scandinavia, a regular Paraguayan or Venezuelan international might sail through the application process.”
Speaking to Smith, our sporting director, Ross Wilson, explained how the club is adjusting by looking at new markets rather than trying to fight the system that is in place:
“If we operate like we have done previously, then that will take us nowhere.
“Clubs will have to build strategies around the points system.
“The world is much smaller now. There is more data available, more advanced scouting systems, more intelligence. We can access far more markets than we could previously.”
Alfredo Morelos has proven that we shouldn’t be scared to look at the South American market, yes, he came via Finland but the way he has adapted no doubt played a part in the decision to sign Juan Alegria, without El Bufalo I’m not sure we sign a relatively untested 19-year old Colombian.
One of Wilson’s key roles is to create a transfer model built on buying low and selling high, Scottish ( and British) players inherently don’t hold high valuations or usually head abroad, a player that can speak Spanish is instantly more likely to attract the attentions of European sides with money burning a hole in their pockets – we need to have a squad that isn’t restricted in terms of potential buyers, the days of having eleven Brits in the team are long gone.