Steven Gerrard has one priority on transfer deadline day – not selling any of his star players.
Yes, this goes against everything that our business model dictates but, it is too late to sign replacements, even if Ross Wilson has been keeping tabs on certain players.
Invariably, clubs end up paying too much money on the last day of the window because sellers know that they hold all the cards, for example, say we agree to sell Glen Kamara, St Johnstone would immediately put the price tag up of Ali McCann knowing that we are looking for midfielder.
The same would go with Hibernian and Josh Doig should Borna Barisic head to Serie A, there would instantly be a tax added because of the lateness of the deal and because they would know that we have money to spend.
There is always another window and now isn’t that great a time to sell given how some clubs are cutting their cloth, the priority would shift to getting players with less than two years on their contracts signed up to extensions, even if it is just an extra twelve months added on.
As a player gets older their value depreciates, however, this can be offset by having them on long-term contracts especially if they are in their peak years like Kamara, Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent, Rangers can only sell the players that have had offers made for them and, other than Nathan Patterson, nothing concrete has come in.
The model remains the same but Gerrard and Wilson will have to adjust, winning the league and qualifying automatically for the group stages of the Champions League is now the number one target, that the board didn’t accept the first offers that have come in shows us that they are singing off the same song sheet.