MW looking to add more

[The Beast 9,503]

We need to increase squad depth as well as quality though. Including the loanees returning to their parent clubs, we've lost six players from what was a very lean squad and brought in four so far. Even if we sign another four will that give us the size of squad we need for a season which can only be more demanding than last?‎

[OzGers 425]

24 minutes ago, Del said:

Remember the loan market...

I would be very surprised is the "4" players he wants will all be permanent deals!

If 3 are tied up this week, they won't be loans.

i suspect that the 3 are krancjar, a goalie(surely not release bell unless he had someone waiting in wings) and mariappa. My gut is that he sees Mariappa as CB and RB cover.

I hope to god his striking option is not vaughn.

firstly, he talked balance between youth and experience- with signing niko, Joey, hill and possibly mariappa, then adding someone like vaughn, our squad would well and truly be skewed to experience   Imo

secondly, I maintain that King has to make a statement and splash out on a fee. Not crazy money but perhaps a million pound player- this will be a show of enormous faith that he will do what it takes.

Thirdly, King talked European quality- vaughn is anything but that

 

 

[Poetry_In_Blue 1,043]

1 hour ago, OzGers said:

If 3 are tied up this week, they won't be loans.

i suspect that the 3 are krancjar, a goalie(surely not release bell unless he had someone waiting in wings) and mariappa. My gut is that he sees Mariappa as CB and RB cover.

I hope to god his striking option is not vaughn.

firstly, he talked balance between youth and experience- with signing niko, Joey, hill and possibly mariappa, then adding someone like vaughn, our squad would well and truly be skewed to experience   Imo

secondly, I maintain that King has to make a statement and splash out on a fee. Not crazy money but perhaps a million pound player- this will be a show of enormous faith that he will do what it takes.

Thirdly, King talked European quality- vaughn is anything but that

 

 

Why do people keep talking about King paying a fee for players?  MW has been identifying the targets that he wants and if they are all Bosmans then  no fee would be involved.  If there is a target who will require a fee then we might not here about it till the actual transfer window opens.

[Canabear 4,585]

1 hour ago, OzGers said:

If 3 are tied up this week, they won't be loans.

i suspect that the 3 are krancjar, a goalie(surely not release bell unless he had someone waiting in wings) and mariappa. My gut is that he sees Mariappa as CB and RB cover.

I hope to god his striking option is not vaughn.

firstly, he talked balance between youth and experience- with signing niko, Joey, hill and possibly mariappa, then adding someone like vaughn, our squad would well and truly be skewed to experience   Imo

secondly, I maintain that King has to make a statement and splash out on a fee. Not crazy money but perhaps a million pound player- this will be a show of enormous faith that he will do what it takes.

Thirdly, King talked European quality- vaughn is anything but that

 

 

I see where you are coming from re splashing the cash but i really think the squad that MW is assembling right now is more than good enough to get us through the first part of the season.

Once we get to the transfer window in January? then i think you'll see the cash being splashed especially if we are in the running for a place in Europe for next season.

[John Greig's Sideburns 177]

1 hour ago, OzGers said:

If 3 are tied up this week, they won't be loans.

i suspect that the 3 are krancjar, a goalie(surely not release bell unless he had someone waiting in wings) and mariappa. My gut is that he sees Mariappa as CB and RB cover.

I hope to god his striking option is not vaughn.

firstly, he talked balance between youth and experience- with signing niko, Joey, hill and possibly mariappa, then adding someone like vaughn, our squad would well and truly be skewed to experience   Imo

secondly, I maintain that King has to make a statement and splash out on a fee. Not crazy money but perhaps a million pound player- this will be a show of enormous faith that he will do what it takes.

Thirdly, King talked European quality- vaughn is anything but that

 

 

Mariappa won't be cover if he's brought in, he's far better than both Wilson and Kiernan

[OzGers 425]

1 hour ago, John Greig's Sideburns said:

Mariappa won't be cover if he's brought in, he's far better than both Wilson and Kiernan

Sorry I meant RB cover...he would start CB but if tav injured, move to RB

[OzGers 425]

1 hour ago, Poetry_In_Blue said:

Why do people keep talking about King paying a fee for players?  MW has been identifying the targets that he wants and if they are all Bosmans then  no fee would be involved.  If there is a target who will require a fee then we might not here about it till the actual transfer window opens.

Read my post.

just as signing Barton laid a marker of intent, so too would paying a transfer fee.

it was solidify that we are back and mounting a challenge, prove the owners are prepared to back the manager, shut up all the doubters who say we are skint, and hopefully get a player who will add quality and potential sell on value.

im all for free transfers, but sometimes the quality is not there, and you need to pay

[FlippinEck 3,844]

I think Bradshaw would be just that player. We need a quality option up front and whilst I think that Bradshaw still represents a gamble,I think it's one worth taking.

[AlBear. 8,499]

5 hours ago, The Beast said:

We need to increase squad depth as well as quality though. Including the loanees returning to their parent clubs, we've lost six players from what was a very lean squad and brought in four so far. Even if we sign another four will that give us the size of squad we need for a season which can only be more demanding than last?‎

We've brought in five so far.

[THE_Ibrox_Preacher 2,812]

I for one am very encouraged by the comments from Mr. Warburton as I had just a few days ago been explaining to my pal that I reckoned we needed 5 players if we were genuinely challenging. Don't get me wrong I'm hardly panicking, we're in a position where deadline day/desperation/white-elephant signings are most unlikely but you also have your own idea of what we need to be credible this season and things like being quiet with regards to Central Defenders had us all sitting with slightly baited breath. 

The way I was looking at speaking to my pal was the following;

• Foderingham while clearly a step up on previous keepers, is at least going to need someone that can potentially challenge him for the jersey. A keeper is said to be worth something like 10 points alone to your season and a case could be made for bringing in a better keeper than Foderingham has been seen to be thus far. At the very least you need someone to challenge him and be capable of filling-in to a standard where regardless of injury Rangers push on towards the title.
• Looking at the way we were cut apart last season by even mediocre strike-forces (enough times to take notice) you'd be hard pushed to find me a Rangers fan who wouldn't concede the point that in a standard year of going for the title Wilson and Kiernan aren't good enough to be first-team. Now Clint Hill may provide some of what I'm about to highlight but it would be unfair to expect a man of his seniority to provide it all. Wilson and Kiernan between them don't appear to marshall the defense, there isn't a resolute header-winner between them, neither of them appears to be the Mr. Reliable that is always between the opposition and the attempt on goal, there is nothing in terms of cover, neither have over the whole of the season shown themselves to be particularly error free and one must assume that is more likely to be exposed than suppressed in a better division. As said Clint Hill might provide a chunk of this however if we are genuine in our title challenge we must assume that Wilson and Kiernan won't step up and be prepared for that, as such a clearly first team quality CB is required. Clint could be anything over the course of the season but assuming he is first-team and plays the whole shebang you still need someone else capable of a league-winning season alongside him or someone who at least can challenge Wilson/Kiernan and give cover to injuries - we certainly do not have the bulk of that at present. Ideally, you bring in someone head and shoulders above Wilson/Kiernan relegating them to being the cover but also forcing them to up their game if they want to feature.
• We have Wallace and Tavernier, now we both know they can be defensively suspect but more to the point who is the cover for them? If we can find someone who can cover both as LWB/RWB and that player can snap at both their heels then we'd be making a shrewd signing for bookings, injuries, and bad performance patches that happen. I can't quite imagine Wallace getting dropped but yellow cards total could happen and Tavernier could need a break at some point. It's lunacy to not have someone as cover for them both that would not be seen as an obvious weak link.
• CF - Warburton says striker I believe however a CF or striker is required IMO. None of our forwards is the man you know will beat two SPL CB's to a cross ball header and that's a problem for me, if we're going for the title against a better standard of opposition then you need to unlock the defenses with what you have and Millers game is finding a half-yard, Waghorn seems to be a right-sided forward and a bit of an allrounder but neither of them is that target man that Mckay/Windass or Forrester/O'Halloran can cross to, I'm not saying they'll never get on the end of one just that the teams we will be playing will be better than last season and they will employ the same tactics while pulling off feats of defending that only a hatred of our club could induce. With this in mind, you want that Prso/Hateley type on the books and I don't think we've been linked with him yet. We are linked with Bradshaw, however, he seemingly gives you the nippy striker that Miller once was (and arguably still is), O'Halloran could do this though and if we're adding strings to the bow I'd prefer that CF that gives our players someone to aim for even in a packed defense. Maybe Warburton wants Bradshaw for the nippy striker role and he'll aim for the 'big man' but he seemingly favours the former than the latter at present. Regardless of the truth we do at least need one credible option to Waghorn/Miller  and Windass looks like an alternative to McKay on the left and O'Halloran is yet to set the heather alight may be more of an alternative to Forrester on the right or a utility forward than someone we look to for goals.
• In my assessment we needed 5 players, Warburton seems to be suggesting 4 but  he missed out CM; Niko is said to be coming in, however, and in my view we needed another Midfielder so he counts. I know we've been linked with midfielders galore however it was the bulk of our problems last season offering dick all in defense and in attacking lacking impetus and ideas was a regular occurrence. Barton and Crooks give us grit (missing out the Liverpool boy here because I have no idea what he is in reality) and Niko, in theory, gives us the invention; the conduit between getting the ball and giving Miller/Waghorn something to work with up front. 

If we bring in Niko and the other 4 we have a team/squad that can go second with ease and can offer a challenge at least for the title. The race will be on and that I think we were all a little worried wouldn't be happening. Some of the players aren't viewed as being obviously title-winning class however when you look at what Warburton is signing, they are strings to our bow; where we're weak he's bolstering, where we have someone good he's brought/bringing in better or someone who will push that player into being better. I look at our options and think 'shrewd' is what is being screamed by our transfer activity, not 'money, money, money' or 'pot-less' but 'shrewd'.

                                                                                                     Foderingham/Alternate #1 or competition yet to be signed.

Tavernier/RWB,LWB cover player yet to be signed,                  Yet to be signed but possibly Mariappa/Kiernan/Wilson,                                    Hill/Kiernan/Wilson,                                 Wallace/RWB,LWB cover player yet to be signed

 

                                               Crooks/Rossiter/Halliday                                                                                  Barton/Rossiter/Halliday

 

                                                                                                                Yet to be signed but possibly Kranjcar/Holt/Forrester                                                      

              Forrester/O'Halloran/Waghorn                                                                                                                                                                                                                   McKay/Windass              

                               

                                        Waghorn/Miller/yet to be signed

 

You don't have to be SAF or Walter to see how we could change formation with ease to just about anything giving us a different stick to poke the opposition with, while not seemingly weakening our line-up. I'm not even touching the real possibility that players on the fringes might push through at some point giving us a further increase in options beyond the existent depth they provide.

Now we can say that even with the players yet to be signed, we haven't exactly signed players that leap off the page as being winners (out with Barton) in a "normal" SPL push but unlike a "normal" season we have a very capable head of recruitment in Frank McParland and as such you have to factor that into to the equation when predicting the capabilities of our new team. One thing for the assistant and the manager to get it wrong but to get it wrong with McParland there too, it seems far more likely that our pace in the transfer market is indicative that we've identified what we need and we've gone out and sought it. Clint Hill isn't someone who, coming up for 38, screams 'solution' just now nevermind going forward but there's a multitude of reasons why he could be a sound signing (including the possibility that he switches to coaching us). Hill's signing reminds me of this scene...

 

 

 

[The Beast 9,503]

6 hours ago, AlBear85 said:

We've brought in five so far.

Hill, Barton and the two lads from Accrington. Who have I missed?

 

answered my own question: Rossiter.

 

my point still stands re overall numbers though.

[Poetry_In_Blue 1,043]

9 hours ago, OzGers said:

Read my post.

just as signing Barton laid a marker of intent, so too would paying a transfer fee.

it was solidify that we are back and mounting a challenge, prove the owners are prepared to back the manager, shut up all the doubters who say we are skint, and hopefully get a player who will add quality and potential sell on value.

im all for free transfers, but sometimes the quality is not there, and you need to pay

We got Barton on a free transfer so it proves that there could be a good quality of player available and getting good quality players without paying a transfer fee gives us an option of actually offering better wages to attract players out of contract.

I just don't agree that we should pay a fee for a player if we don't have to just to prove doubters wrong, I don't give a shit about them, and as already been stated MW is the person who has been identifying the targets that he wants if all of his targets don't have transfer fees then they don't have transfer fees simple as that.