Danny 9 Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 Every transfer window sees negotiations begin in earnest, as some teams 'rebuild', while others 'reinforce'. Some teams are unfortunate that they simply cannot do either, and find themselves unable to make any sort of changes to the squad. Winning the league and cup double was an excellent achievement for this Rangers side, a fairly unfancied team with a conspicuous lack of previous league winners. It was a relatively inexperienced team which managed to reclaim the SPL crown in such dramatic fashion. However, increasingly it looks like the only changes at Ibrox will be a small number of departures. With only Dailly and Hemdani already gone, this club is struggling to ship out the so-called dead wood, and overtures to the tune of 'no new signings' are being made by the management. If there's a semblance of truth in this, that the club believes the first team squad we have is good enough to retain the SPL and challenge in the CL, would you agree with this assessment? There is a strong argument which points out that this is an amazingly young team, with so many quality players with age on their side: guys like McGregor, Bougherra, Whittaker, Davis, Lafferty, Edu, Thomson, Miller, Boyd...there is the idea that this team hasn't been together terribly long, and could 'grow' together having won its first league. However, the contrasting stance points out that even the best teams with high levels of success always look to bring players in. Even Barca and Man Utd are making significant changes to their team, ditto teams like Inter. Can we compete on all fronts with what we have, or to maintain and improve on last season must we sign new players? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueSuedeSambas 55,370 Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 However, increasingly it looks like the only changes at Ibrox will be a small number of departures. With only Dailly and Hemdani already gone, this club is struggling to ship out the so-called dead wood, and overtures to the tune of 'no new signings' are being made by the management. No we aren't. on top of higher earning youngsters like Robinson, Furman and Efrem leaving we have already seen Smith, Hemdani, Dailly, Ferguson and Webster all leave. And although they are digging their heels in guys like Gow, Adam and Beasley have no shortage of suitors either. We aren't struggling to offload the deadwood as much as some people are making out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueballss 2,999 Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 Danny, Is this squad equipped for next season? no! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimfanciesthedude 25,246 Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 regarding the shipping out of the dead wood, maybe we will, maybe we wont, thats a job for bain and co but as for our teams ability to retain the title, we have a championship winning team that has still got a player of thommo's ability to add to the squad plus if you believe a fair few posters on here, the likes of fleck, wilson, aaron amongst others will easily complement our first team squad while we are not world beaters, theres nothing so far to suggest that we are gonna give up the league, especially to that mob, who by all accounts have signed a loan signing, a players who would rather play in scotland than the EPL (wtf?) and still havent upgraded their defence which was nothing short of abraham lincoln last season Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmccall 0 Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 No, Danny, we're not equipped. While we had a remarkable season last year it was dotted with injury and a relative lack of consistency. To make matters worse we're set to go into the CL and a title defense with a 39 year old CB and a bunch of strikers and midfielders who are still wet behind the ears. Don't get me wrong, we have a decent side, but not what we need to compete on any and all fronts this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick1271 533 Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 i believe we are good enough to win the league again as long as we dont lose any 1st choice players .selling fringe players like mcCullough and adam etc is acceptable as we have young players that can be brought in to the squad to replace them. unfortunately the club has to cut back on wages and overheads so the days of the blue chip signing is over for the forseeable future.any players we do bring in are going to be low wage bosmans ,and i would much prefer to see fleck, ness or wilson given a chance.we are only going to improve and the inconsistant performances of last season should become rarer.IMO we are going in the right direction... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skol 401 Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 I think we have a potentially good 1st team. My concern is that the squad is a little light and we may struggle with squad depth this year, what with all the extra games and travelling. We could do with 2-3 quality improvements. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryann 0 Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 i think we do need to sign a centre back to play alongside boughy as i don't think davie weir will last a full season. and to be honest the team is quite light weight. we need a big striker like dado. maybe with ferguson away now and thomson going to be fit again we can go 4-3-3 and be attacking from the start of the season. i do think we have the squad strong enough to retain the spl title as the mhanks haven't really done anything that makes me worry. we are in a better position than them as they have a new management team and some new faces to bed in, the champions league qualifiers plus dealing with the trouble makers like mcgeady and fatty boruc. as where we dont, unless wally does buy someone nearer the window closing. but i doubt it. and i do agree that bain should be pushing the likes of mc culloch and adam out the door as they are no where near good enough to play for rangers! but for the champions league i think we will struggle, iam defo looking forward to these nights as they are always good. but as long as we finish 3rd then i would be happy with another run in the europa cup as we do have a better chance of winning that! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny 9 Posted July 20, 2009 Author Share Posted July 20, 2009 However, increasingly it looks like the only changes at Ibrox will be a small number of departures. With only Dailly and Hemdani already gone, this club is struggling to ship out the so-called dead wood, and overtures to the tune of 'no new signings' are being made by the management. No we aren't. on top of higher earning youngsters like Robinson, Furman and Efrem leaving we have already seen Smith, Hemdani, Dailly, Ferguson and Webster all leave. And although they are digging their heels in guys like Gow, Adam and Beasley have no shortage of suitors either. We aren't struggling to offload the deadwood as much as some people are making out. We are. The only 2 of note we've shipped out are Hemdani and Ferguson. Smith was just a reserve goalie, Dailly is still trying to be part of the club and Webster is still a Rangers player. I also ain't sure getting rid of 3 youngsters is shipping out the dead wood. As for Gow, Adam and Beasley - the only link I see is Adam and Blackpool - Beasley hasn't been linked to anyone best I know, ditto Gow? And quite honestly the fact they're digging their heels in IS the reason we're struggling to ship them. What about other guys like McCulloch and Broadfoot? And does Naismith have a future? We have a fair archive of players we need shot of, and we've only got rid of 2 major ones. We're struggling, whatever way you put it m8. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny 9 Posted July 20, 2009 Author Share Posted July 20, 2009 i think we do need to sign a centre back to play alongside boughy as i don't think davie weir will last a full season. and to be honest the team is quite light weight. we need a big striker like dado. maybe with ferguson away now and thomson going to be fit again we can go 4-3-3 and be attacking from the start of the season. i do think we have the squad strong enough to retain the spl title as the mhanks haven't really done anything that makes me worry. we are in a better position than them as they have a new management team and some new faces to bed in, the champions league qualifiers plus dealing with the trouble makers like mcgeady and fatty boruc. as where we dont, unless wally does buy someone nearer the window closing. but i doubt it. and i do agree that bain should be pushing the likes of mc culloch and adam out the door as they are no where near good enough to play for rangers! but for the champions league i think we will struggle, iam defo looking forward to these nights as they are always good. but as long as we finish 3rd then i would be happy with another run in the europa cup as we do have a better chance of winning that! I think this squad should expect to make the last 16 of the CL. The Europa Cup is the loser's competition I'm afraid, and I don't want us anywhere near it. Also, I'm not so sure I agree on your comment about us being lightweight? Bougherra, Weir, Edu, Thomson, Lafferty, Miller and Boyd aren't fairies. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueben_d 40 Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 Look at Arsenal down south... successful team who then let players go and rely on bringing through the talented youth... it isn't bringing them silverware and even a fantastic coach like Wenger has come in for criticism for not spending. If the squad we have plays to a consistent level we can still win the title, but going on past seasons it's going to be very very tough without any kind of improvement to the first team squad - the only bright side is that Celtic don't look significantly stronger than last season.... yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nvager 498 Posted July 20, 2009 Share Posted July 20, 2009 We may win the SPL and the Cup again, but it will be a struggle. We need a CH as DW is getting on and Magic will be in Africa for a spell early next year. Wilson and McCulloch??????? We need a fullback because KB is out for a while and if Whittaker or Papac get injured we have no cover. We need more flair at midfield and I hope Aaron/Fleck and Naismith come on big time. Be good if Beasley recaptured form too. Strikers are probably ok with Boyd, Miller and Lafferty. (Novo, Naismith, Velicka in reserve.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStu08 0 Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 No I don't think are well equipped enough for next season as it stands!! As defending champions we should at least push the boat out for 1 or 2 reinforcements, despite money being tight! We have just sold 1 of our highest earners and cleared out some of the rubbish! The mhanks made this mistake when they had the intiative....not building on it so we cannot afford to do the same now that we are in this position!!! This reinforcements in particular are most definetly a CB, 1 or 2 wingers and a right full back to cover Whitty.......Broadcrap is out until Oct/Nov and is a complete imposter anyway! Lee McCulloch? Now that beggars belief why that waste of pitch space is still at Ibrox, cover up centre half no doubt? Weir n Bougherra wont go through the season unscathed! Frightening possibility is that McCulloch cud play there in europe at some stage next season, seriously......sends shudders down my spine the sheer prospect of him in our starting 11!!! We do have a decent squad with some quality in midfield, particualryl if Thommo comes back in good nick, Boughie at back and Lafferty up top but we do need to strengthen somehow and if we don't.......well it may come back to bite us!!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancedeangers1 287 Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 We won the league with this squad fair enough, but dont let that fool you. Things were far from straight forward and performances although workmanlike were incredibly average at times. Couple this with the fact our main rivals were far from as consistent as they had been previously and we won it by the narrowest of margins. Our rivals are having a major overhaul including the fresh injection of management and determination, add to this the new better quality players they are bringing in and compare it to our weakening of the squad with no apparent new players etc and you would be forgiven for being concerned. In boxing the easy part is winning a title, the hardest part is keeping it ?? I feel the same can be applied here. In summary I think our best chance of a successful season is solely dependant upon improvement within the squad we already have. Matching last seasons standards simply wont be enough, we must raise our game and quality of performance to the next level to combat what will surely be a more dangerous opponent in green and grey... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaffbear 4,123 Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 a left winger and a centre half with Adam,Gow,McCulloch and Velicka leaving and i'll be happy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amac9 2,060 Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 IMO we need a RB/LB/CB/LW/ST but with our financial problems we won't be expecting a lot of transfers. Hopefully we can shift on Adam, McCulloch, Gow, Beasley, S.Smith to free up wages etc. It is also vital that we keep hold of our best players (Davis/Bougherra) if we are to have a real good go at defending our title. If Bougheera does leave, God forbid, then we may need 2 new CB's and that will cost money as McCulloch is brutal and Wilson has no first team experience yet. Are the young guns like Wilson, Little, Fleck, McMillan, Ness, Shinnie... ready for the step up? Time will tell. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaguy51 912 Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 It's not equipped adequately to compete on all four fronts, no. Something will have to give in one of the competitions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orangeclement 588 Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 We WILL win the league again whether we strengthen or not, Europe is a difficult one, hard to comment on if you dont know your opponents as anything is possible after all its 11V11 and anything can happen. Why do we have so many doom mongers in our support. the squad was good enough to win it last season even though we lacked consistency, so if we add the consistency this season add to that the fresh faces who hardley featured last season due to injury we EASILY have enough in the squad to do a clean sweep domestically Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny 9 Posted July 21, 2009 Author Share Posted July 21, 2009 I think a major concern I have is that we look forward to new seasons a lot more when we have new signings to look forward to watching. Right now I am looking forward to next season, but it would feel a lot more exciting in a way if we signed one or two good new players who expected to be in the first team. Part of the close season is reinforcing the squad, freshening things up and guarding against complacancy. No new signings would be a bit negative for team and fan morale imo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gary2006 123 Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 no i dont think we are danny 2 or 3 injuries to key players and we are in trouble. as we have all seen in previous seasons when we are in the champions league our squad is stretched to the maximum and looking at this squad as it stands at the moment it might not take a lot of injuries to reach breaking point. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Brown Brogue Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 We WILL win the league again whether we strengthen or not, Europe is a difficult one, hard to comment on if you dont know your opponents as anything is possible after all its 11V11 and anything can happen. Why do we have so many doom mongers in our support. the squad was good enough to win it last season even though we lacked consistency, so if we add the consistency this season add to that the fresh faces who hardley featured last season due to injury we EASILY have enough in the squad to do a clean sweep domestically Celtic could say the same about consistency. I certainly dont think the title is a certainty let alone an easy domestic clean sweep. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muff 245 Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 No, IMO, we are not equipped enough to compete in all competitions, and I reckon it will affect our league form, unless we get in a few players! At the back, we have one RB; Steven Whittaker. Kirk Broadfoot is pish and out injured, whilst Jordan McMillan is unproven, and Alan Lowing is absolutely brutal. At CB; we have Madjid Bougherra, David Weir (who will never be able to play Saturday, Tuesday/Wednesday, Sunday) Lee McCulloch, who I don't see as an option; he's fucking awful, and Danny Wilson. A player who has no experience what-so-ever. At LB: Sasa Papac, and Stevie Smith (who is not good enough). If anyone of our back four pick up an injury/suspension/loss of form, then we are struggling big time. I also have concerns about David Weir, Steven Whittaker, and Sasa Papac over the course of the season. Plus, will Madjid Bougherra still be here???? Midfield is not to bad, but we will still see a number of players played out of position, and we lack a physical presence upfront. A couple of injuries and we are struggling! We need new players in, and they have to the the right personnel, and of the right quality to make us better. This squad was very inconsistant at times last season, and unless we see a few faces, then we'll just be the same. Every team looks to strengthen every season; what makes us so different? For the first time in years we have the makings of a very good squad. A few signings that we require, and we'll be very strong. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithgersbear 3,225 Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 Get Mcgregor back in goal. Keep Boyd, we have by far the best depth in midfield just need more consistent performances. A new CB would be lovely and if we can do that, then for me we will be the strongest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny 9 Posted July 21, 2009 Author Share Posted July 21, 2009 If anyone of our back four pick up an injury/suspension/loss of form, then we are struggling big time. I also have concerns about David Weir, Steven Whittaker, and Sasa Papac over the course of the season. Plus, will Madjid Bougherra still be here???? Well, at various times last season Bougherra, Broadfoot and Papac were out injured or suspended. The consequences were not dire. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goianegra 4,706 Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 It was last season. The only difference is some dead wood is shifted and we don't have to think about Dailly getting games. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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