Do we trust Smith's lack of activity?

[Danny 9]

By this I mean the following:

We lost our star player and brought in what amounts of 3 pieces of squad cover. We didn't invest anything in signing an adequate replacement for Hutton, indeed positing that Whittaker will naturally slot in there.

And he probably is suitable enough for the SPL - he's nothing special yet, but he has given signs of being able to step up a level - while many displays have been average, he's also produced the odd good display. And that is exactly what Hutton did too.

So is it possible that Smith's lack of successful transfers are actually entirely in hand. That he suspected he wouldn't be able to get too many new faces of real quality in, and felt fairly assured by the squad he currently has?

We have Smith and Webster coming back, and we've brought in a decent player in Davis.

We've not reinforced to any great level I accept, and may also lose Cousin, but one thing Walter Smith was always good in was the SPL.

And that IS our priority.

I dunno, we've fielded some pretty awful teams in the past 10 games - Charlie Adam is not exactly world class. But we've still been winning consistently. Even without Thomson, without DMB, without Smith, without Cousin.

I just feel like while we didn't get that roll's royce signature to excite us, that the last couple of months or so have given us a real edge in the SPL no matter who we start with.

I am not as worried as maybe I might have been. I think Whittaker, while not the class of Hutton, will be adequate till the end of the season. After all, Papac has been adequate despite the pelters he used to receive.

Anyone else share my (misguided?) optimism?

[Jimenez 1]

I hate Murray for this, but that's for another thread

I'm borderline optimistic, there's something niggling me telling me you just don't sell two starting players and hope your success is continuous

But I look at them and can't help feel we have enough in the tank

[Jimenez 1]

Also like to add that if Cousin is to return we will piss this

[Speuan 1]

Not sure about 'Lack of activity' I think he did te best he could do, the hutton money came too late, and cousin deal it the rocks for now, we got a quality midfielder and should have more than enough to get us across the finish line. we bought 10 players in the summer so I would have been surprised to see too many more this window. our transfer kitty this summer should be formidable especially if we win the league, and if thhis happens WGS will be hung out to dry, and we should once more be able to out spend them again and keep the league the following year.

[BlueSuedeSambas 53,913]

I believe that we still have enough to win this league.

It's also worth saying that our lack of signings could actually held us, rather than hinder us.

Celtic signed five players with four: Robson, Samaras, Hinkel and Mizuno all likely to play in their first team.

Now that IMO is a huge overhaul at such a crucial time of the season and I can't help but feel that there is a real possibility of teething problems.

Realistically we are only going to have Davis coming into our team as a regular, which is going to boost us in an attacking sense, while also keeping the majority of the team that has got us this far toghther.

[Danny 9]

I believe that we still have enough to win this league.

It's also worth saying that our lack of signings could actually held us, rather than hinder us.

Celtic signed five players with four: Robson, Samaras, Hinkel and Mizuno all likely to play in their first team.

Now that IMO is a huge overhaul at such a crucial time of the season and I can't help but feel that there is a real possibility of teething problems.

Realistically we are only going to have Davis coming into our team as a regular, which is going to boost us in an attacking sense, while also keeping the majority of the team that has got us this far toghther.

I'm not sure I buy the teething issues point you raise; in January 2005 we brought in Soti, Ron, Tommy and Barry. All went straight into the first team, and we won ourselves a league from it.

[Jimenez 1]

Not sure about 'Lack of activity' I think he did te best he could do, the hutton money came too late, and cousin deal it the rocks for now, we got a quality midfielder and should have more than enough to get us across the finish line. we bought 10 players in the summer so I would have been surprised to see too many more this window. our transfer kitty this summer should be formidable especially if we win the league, and if thhis happens WGS will be hung out to dry, and we should once more be able to out spend them again and keep the league the following year.

I just can not accept that.

Smith said he had money to spend before selling a player for starters so why the so called panick after he did leave

We must have known that money was coming, I simply refuse to believe that SDM didn't have his way here

It's just too perfectly conveniant for him for my liking

[Danny 9]

Not sure about 'Lack of activity' I think he did te best he could do, the hutton money came too late, and cousin deal it the rocks for now, we got a quality midfielder and should have more than enough to get us across the finish line. we bought 10 players in the summer so I would have been surprised to see too many more this window. our transfer kitty this summer should be formidable especially if we win the league, and if thhis happens WGS will be hung out to dry, and we should once more be able to out spend them again and keep the league the following year.

I just can not accept that.

Smith said he had money to spend before selling a player for starters so why the so called panick after he did leave

We must have known that money was coming, I simply refuse to believe that SDM didn't have his way here

It's just too perfectly conveniant for him for my liking

I agree with your cynicism about the financial situation. I don't know if I agree that SDM is entirely to blame albeit circumstantially it does look sadly likely, but without certainty I'm loathe to end the buck with him.

But surely to God we're not so broke we can't spend a few million on one or two decent players?

We did it last January - £2M on Thomson which we fans didn't even know we had!

Rangers are not broke.

[Stardog 11]

100% behind Smith's deicisions. We will win the league.

[diesel0412 1]

wev definately still got the team to beat celtic,cousin goes but wev got the most prolific goal scorer who will take his place and score more than cousin did anyway,boydy has only scored 4 goals less than McDonald and played half the games that he has.whittaker will slot in at right back and will do a job in spl no problem.a dont see where people get we are much weaker with hutton an cousin leaving when we have ready made replacements who will take there place.

celtics signings have been mediocre imo aswell as samaras couldnt score in a brothel,robson is a spl player an thats it,never old firm material.

steven davis is a quality player who a think will be the best signing in scotland an will tip the title in our favour,he should slot straight into the midfield,thommo fergie an davis in midfield will beat any midfield that celtic throw at us with burke an naismith on the wings pushing forward at every oppurtunity,sounds good to me.

we have a big squad already so we dont need as many signings in the summer so we can afford to bring in 3 or 4 top quality players at maybe 3/4 million.

[Speuan 1]

I'm not saying it was ideal but we spent a good bit more than celts in the summer, and this window i know smith said he had money to spend on players but he never said how much. i was looking forward to some decent signings this summer like everyone else, I just feel that the 9 mill from alan hutton allowed us to step up a level just a bit too late.

I am sure that smith worked as hard as he could to set things in place when we did get the money and some of these did not come off. But I, like him, have faith in the squad to go all the way this season.

[polar bear 0]

If we had signed that big Spaghetti muncher,would we all have been happy with what transpired yesterday?Probably yes.I'm going to wait until I find out for

sure what exactly happened yesterday before I go blaming anyone.I've got a feeling that every thing was set up a while back,and the guy done a U-turn at

the last minute.

[nvager 498]

If we had signed that big Spaghetti muncher,would we all have been happy with what transpired yesterday?Probably yes.I'm going to wait until I find out for

sure what exactly happened yesterday before I go blaming anyone.I've got a feeling that every thing was set up a while back,and the guy done a U-turn at

the last minute.

If the guy was too much of a home/mamma's boy to leave Italy and lacked self confidence as Amo is saying that plus his goalscoring record makes me think we have been very lucky to miss out on him. Who would choose Italy Div 2 vs CL football?

I think PB is correct and we are LUCKY here.

[OlegKuznetsov 10,816]

I believe that we still have enough to win this league.

It's also worth saying that our lack of signings could actually held us, rather than hinder us.

Celtic signed five players with four: Robson, Samaras, Hinkel and Mizuno all likely to play in their first team.

Now that IMO is a huge overhaul at such a crucial time of the season and I can't help but feel that there is a real possibility of teething problems.

Realistically we are only going to have Davis coming into our team as a regular, which is going to boost us in an attacking sense, while also keeping the majority of the team that has got us this far toghther.

I'm not sure I buy the teething issues point you raise; in January 2005 we brought in Soti, Ron, Tommy and Barry. All went straight into the first team, and we won ourselves a league from it.

As a keeper and an experienced one too, Waterreus required not settling in period and Barry had only been away 18 months and knew 80% of the squad and how they played.

Kyrgiakos and Buffel worked, but they were the only two.

However, I think you can dismiss Mizuno and Huchinson since they're long term signings.

[OlegKuznetsov 10,816]

Not sure about 'Lack of activity' I think he did te best he could do, the hutton money came too late, and cousin deal it the rocks for now, we got a quality midfielder and should have more than enough to get us across the finish line. we bought 10 players in the summer so I would have been surprised to see too many more this window. our transfer kitty this summer should be formidable especially if we win the league, and if thhis happens WGS will be hung out to dry, and we should once more be able to out spend them again and keep the league the following year.

I just can not accept that.

Smith said he had money to spend before selling a player for starters so why the so called panick after he did leave

We must have known that money was coming, I simply refuse to believe that SDM didn't have his way here

It's just too perfectly conveniant for him for my liking

I agree with your cynicism about the financial situation. I don't know if I agree that SDM is entirely to blame albeit circumstantially it does look sadly likely, but without certainty I'm loathe to end the buck with him.

But surely to God we're not so broke we can't spend a few million on one or two decent players?

We did it last January - £2M on Thomson which we fans didn't even know we had!

Rangers are not broke.

I agree there was money there, but not with the cynicism.

100% behind Smith's deicisions. We will win the league.

I'm with you.

[rfc_no1fan 13]

Not sure about 'Lack of activity' I think he did te best he could do, the hutton money came too late, and cousin deal it the rocks for now, we got a quality midfielder and should have more than enough to get us across the finish line. we bought 10 players in the summer so I would have been surprised to see too many more this window. our transfer kitty this summer should be formidable especially if we win the league, and if thhis happens WGS will be hung out to dry, and we should once more be able to out spend them again and keep the league the following year.

Surey you dont buy that!

Rangers knew Hutton was leaving, infact they made sure he was leaving. They should have had transfer targets lined up (Which they never)

Also Hutton signed for Tottenham after 4-5 days of negotiation and Hutton being back and forth to London. Add that to the 34 hours we had left after he offically signed and we had plenty of time to identify a player.

We were able to get Steven Davis up to Ibrox on the last day and we able to get him signed within 5 hours of the story breaking that we were interested in him.

Happens every year with Rangers, We say we are looking, we identify 1 player and we either get priced out (Conviently for SDM) or the player in question decides to go somewhere else.

SDM will put the money for Hutton into the Bank and we will never see it again.

[Muff 245]

Do we trust Smith's lack of activity?

Not too sure tbh, but time will tell!?

celtc have strengthened in midfield(maybe not strengthened but they have brought in 2) and upfront, however their defence is still pretty suspect. Would of been good had Balde left.

I think we needed 1 or 2 more quality signings just to make sure. Some people say we will piss the league, not a chance of that. We still have to play celtc three times. Get an injury upfront or at the back and I think we could struggle.

This transfer window has been a complete and utter shambles. An embarrasement tbh.