Signing policies

[plymouthranger 4,194]

When you look at the current squad and the issues we have with sellable assets and moving on players, I think it’s time the club adopted some blanket signing policies akin to what the likes of other clubs do. 
 

Here’s my tuppence on what Koppen should be enforcing, but interested to hear any other suggestions:

1) No contracts/renewals longer than 24 months for players over 30 barring goalkeepers. We’ve been stung on this with the likes of Goldson, Tavernier and various others over the years. Man City do it even though they have a bottomless pit of money, as it’ll stop the squad getting stale and enforces change when people are past their best 

2) No transfer fees paid for players over 27 years old. We simply can’t make a profit on them because of the league we play in (Colak is the only one I can think of). Any time we spend money on these players (Lammers being a great example), we lose it and if you amortise the fee over the length of the deal when we ultimately let them go for free after 3-4 years, it means they’re costing us a fortune

3) Scottish/Northern Irish signing policy. We’ll never be an Athletic Club who only sign player from a certain region (and even they have loopholes), but I’d like for us to aim to have 1 in 3 signings as Scottish or Northern Irish background. It’ll mean we always have a core to the squad of players who know the expectations of the club, keeps the connection with the fan base and means we have to go after the best Scottish talent. Too many good players have slipped through the net from other SPFL clubs in recent years. 

4) Any transfer fees over £3million to only be spent on players aged 23 or under. We’ve seen that lot make a profit on a bit part striker (Oh) because he’s young and clubs will gamble for potential. Whilst we have Dessers who we’re reportedly struggling to shift for the same money, despite the fact he scored 5x more goals last season than the other striker. We need to accept that clubs will pay a premium for younger players such as Bassey, Patterson etc. but won’t on players in their mid to late 20s who play in the Scottish league. 
 

Appreciate a lot of these policies could be perceived to have negative affects on the pitch, but a lot of our successful transfers from recent history would comply with these 4 rules and we’d arguably have a much stronger squad and less issues moving on players had they been followed. Appreciate there’ll always be one off dilemmas, but if the DOF had one veto per season for them, it would prevent us have transfer windows like the previous 3-4 that have largely been massive failures. 

 

[Rangers_no1 34,229]

Should apply for a job at Ibrox mate.

[DT78 118]

19 minutes ago, plymouthranger said:

When you look at the current squad and the issues we have with sellable assets and moving on players, I think it’s time the club adopted some blanket signing policies akin to what the likes of other clubs do. 
 

Here’s my tuppence on what Koppen should be enforcing, but interested to hear any other suggestions:

1) No contracts/renewals longer than 24 months for players over 30 barring goalkeepers. We’ve been stung on this with the likes of Goldson, Tavernier and various others over the years. Man City do it even though they have a bottomless pit of money, as it’ll stop the squad getting stale and enforces change when people are past their best 

2) No transfer fees paid for players over 27 years old. We simply can’t make a profit on them because of the league we play in (Colak is the only one I can think of). Any time we spend money on these players (Lammers being a great example), we lose it and if you amortise the fee over the length of the deal when we ultimately let them go for free after 3-4 years, it means they’re costing us a fortune

3) Scottish/Northern Irish signing policy. We’ll never be an Athletic Club who only sign player from a certain region (and even they have loopholes), but I’d like for us to aim to have 1 in 3 signings as Scottish or Northern Irish background. It’ll mean we always have a core to the squad of players who know the expectations of the club, keeps the connection with the fan base and means we have to go after the best Scottish talent. Too many good players have slipped through the net from other SPFL clubs in recent years. 

4) Any transfer fees over £3million to only be spent on players aged 23 or under. We’ve seen that lot make a profit on a bit part striker (Oh) because he’s young and clubs will gamble for potential. Whilst we have Dessers who we’re reportedly struggling to shift for the same money, despite the fact he scored 5x more goals last season than the other striker. We need to accept that clubs will pay a premium for younger players such as Bassey, Patterson etc. but won’t on players in their mid to late 20s who play in the Scottish league. 
 

Appreciate a lot of these policies could be perceived to have negative affects on the pitch, but a lot of our successful transfers from recent history would comply with these 4 rules and we’d arguably have a much stronger squad and less issues moving on players had they been followed. Appreciate there’ll always be one off dilemmas, but if the DOF had one veto per season for them, it would prevent us have transfer windows like the previous 3-4 that have largely been massive failures. 

 

A hell of a lot of sense there. 

[adam2102 655]

I agree with it all other than point 3. Nationality shouldn’t come into it other than for European selection purposes. The best players will have the desire to succeed no matter what - they don’t need to know the club’s history to do that. Just my opinion…

[psb07158 35,008]

I agree but rather than buying Scottish when they’re 17/18 we need to be hoovering up talent from every single club in the country before they even turn 16. It’s at no significant cost to us until the point at which we offer them a pro deal and we’ll 100% make a return on it via transfer fees. This is the Benfica model. 

[STEPPS BOY 77,003]

25 minutes ago, psb07158 said:

I agree but rather than buying Scottish when they’re 17/18 we need to be hoovering up talent from every single club in the country before they even turn 16. It’s at no significant cost to us until the point at which we offer them a pro deal and we’ll 100% make a return on it via transfer fees. This is the Benfica model. 

We’ve just done that this summer.

Pretty sure we signed 10 from other teams.

[psb07158 35,008]

29 minutes ago, STEPPS BOY said:

We’ve just done that this summer.

Pretty sure we signed 10 from other teams.

Yep, I’ve heard that. Got told we signed 1 of the best young players in Scotland from Hearts this summer?

Need to figure out a proper pathway to the first team and continue down that path. It’ll start to pay back. 

[MacBoyd 5,940]

Lots of good points. No one seems to want to buy players from us even mid 20s anymore cos of their sell on value the market has changed hugely in the last decade that way.

The goldson deal in particular should be an important lesson. Spending 2m or whatever on a 32 year old mclean just shouldn't happen 

[docspiderman 1,283]

Appears to me that one of the major problems we have is that we still throw inflated wages at mediocre signings meaning potential buyers simply cannot match or afford their wages.
For years we subsidised wages or paid clubs to take our rejects and frequently paid up contracts and getting rid of deadwood is still a problem.

[stevemac 5,362]

5 hours ago, plymouthranger said:

When you look at the current squad and the issues we have with sellable assets and moving on players, I think it’s time the club adopted some blanket signing policies akin to what the likes of other clubs do. 
 

Here’s my tuppence on what Koppen should be enforcing, but interested to hear any other suggestions:

1) No contracts/renewals longer than 24 months for players over 30 barring goalkeepers. We’ve been stung on this with the likes of Goldson, Tavernier and various others over the years. Man City do it even though they have a bottomless pit of money, as it’ll stop the squad getting stale and enforces change when people are past their best 

2) No transfer fees paid for players over 27 years old. We simply can’t make a profit on them because of the league we play in (Colak is the only one I can think of). Any time we spend money on these players (Lammers being a great example), we lose it and if you amortise the fee over the length of the deal when we ultimately let them go for free after 3-4 years, it means they’re costing us a fortune

3) Scottish/Northern Irish signing policy. We’ll never be an Athletic Club who only sign player from a certain region (and even they have loopholes), but I’d like for us to aim to have 1 in 3 signings as Scottish or Northern Irish background. It’ll mean we always have a core to the squad of players who know the expectations of the club, keeps the connection with the fan base and means we have to go after the best Scottish talent. Too many good players have slipped through the net from other SPFL clubs in recent years. 

4) Any transfer fees over £3million to only be spent on players aged 23 or under. We’ve seen that lot make a profit on a bit part striker (Oh) because he’s young and clubs will gamble for potential. Whilst we have Dessers who we’re reportedly struggling to shift for the same money, despite the fact he scored 5x more goals last season than the other striker. We need to accept that clubs will pay a premium for younger players such as Bassey, Patterson etc. but won’t on players in their mid to late 20s who play in the Scottish league. 
 

Appreciate a lot of these policies could be perceived to have negative affects on the pitch, but a lot of our successful transfers from recent history would comply with these 4 rules and we’d arguably have a much stronger squad and less issues moving on players had they been followed. Appreciate there’ll always be one off dilemmas, but if the DOF had one veto per season for them, it would prevent us have transfer windows like the previous 3-4 that have largely been massive failures. 

 

😂

You sign the best players you can afford, period. Just because you are Scottish or northern Irish doesn't mean you understand the core values of playing for the club. Nor are you necessarily good enough.

[BookWorm 4,682]

We signed cifuentes lammers and dessers in the same window. No much of a policy there really.

[Perth_Campsie_Ger 18,523]

6 hours ago, STEPPS BOY said:

We’ve just done that this summer.

Pretty sure we signed 10 from other teams.

The way our fans are would you want to come to us? The way the players are treated is a joke at times

[STEPPS BOY 77,003]

9 hours ago, psb07158 said:

Yep, I’ve heard that. Got told we signed 1 of the best young players in Scotland from Hearts this summer?

Need to figure out a proper pathway to the first team and continue down that path. It’ll start to pay back. 

Yes.

He’s only signed a pre pro contract though so could leave to go down south in a year.

[STEPPS BOY 77,003]

3 hours ago, Perth_Campsie_Ger said:

The way our fans are would you want to come to us? The way the players are treated is a joke at times

Eh?

Fans aren’t going to give young boys hassle.

[The Specky Forum Organiser 69,212]

3 hours ago, Perth_Campsie_Ger said:

The way our fans are would you want to come to us? The way the players are treated is a joke at times

Our players get an easy ride for the most part.

[RossS1873 2,255]

Signing policies? This didn't go the way I was expecting 

[KeyserSoze 15,099]

If we had such a policy we’d never have seen the likes of Gazza amongst others 

and I’d not be having that 

Don’t know why NI players are coming into it - that’s daft. Scottish yes because of our European commitments. 
 

 

[Perth_Campsie_Ger 18,523]

50 minutes ago, The Specky Forum Organiser said:

Our players get an easy ride for the most part.

Im 50/50 on this. On one hand I think players need a chance to grow and develop without constantly having fan on their back, definitely worse in the days of social media.

On the other I think they get paid extremely well so should be doing the job on the park. 

[Perth_Campsie_Ger 18,523]

1 hour ago, STEPPS BOY said:

Eh?

Fans aren’t going to give young boys hassle.

McAusland gets it tight mate, every little mistake at Ibrox folk are on the players backs, I can see how that would get in your head.

[The Specky Forum Organiser 69,212]

3 minutes ago, Perth_Campsie_Ger said:

Im 50/50 on this. On one hand I think players need a chance to grow and develop without constantly having fan on their back, definitely worse in the days of social media.

On the other I think they get paid extremely well so should be doing the job on the park. 

Social media is toxic but every support will be the same on it. Go to Italy, France, Poland or Turkey and underperform and you'll have to deal with roided up mentalists in balaclavas turning up to the training ground trying to intimidate you, smashing up your property etc. 

[6superbarry6 14,557]

1 hour ago, The Specky Forum Organiser said:

Our players get an easy ride for the most part.

Yep, imagine these spineless cunts playing in Italy/Greece/Turkey or Eastern Europe etc, think Borna and Lundstram are in for a big shock. 

[STEPPS BOY 77,003]

18 minutes ago, Perth_Campsie_Ger said:

McAusland gets it tight mate, every little mistake at Ibrox folk are on the players backs, I can see how that would get in your head.

Don’t think Mcausland getting it tight is going to stop a 14 yr old signing from Hibs tbh

[KeyserSoze 15,099]

1 hour ago, Perth_Campsie_Ger said:

McAusland gets it tight mate, every little mistake at Ibrox folk are on the players backs, I can see how that would get in your head.

No halves given. He’s a first team player. He should be ready. If he can’t handle our need to have winners and fighters - then there’s always Kilmarnock or Motherwell 

[plymouthranger 4,194]

10 hours ago, docspiderman said:

Appears to me that one of the major problems we have is that we still throw inflated wages at mediocre signings meaning potential buyers simply cannot match or afford their wages.
For years we subsidised wages or paid clubs to take our rejects and frequently paid up contracts and getting rid of deadwood is still a problem.

I agree, but clearly not every signing will be a success so there’s always that risk of having wages spent on players who aren’t contributing. 
 

But if you have some rules in place that mean we’re spending less of our transfer and wage budget on non sellable assets (Goldson being giving a 4 year deal at £30k plus p/w when nobody would even pay a transfer fee for him or sign him out of contract being a great example). 

[kelvd1873 7,561]

14 hours ago, psb07158 said:

I agree but rather than buying Scottish when they’re 17/18 we need to be hoovering up talent from every single club in the country before they even turn 16. It’s at no significant cost to us until the point at which we offer them a pro deal and we’ll 100% make a return on it via transfer fees. This is the Benfica model. 

This 100%. We should be promoting ourselves as the club to go to for young promising Scottish players. We need to be known for signing, playing and then selling them on.