The lack of signings at Ibrox has left many fans concerned about how the club will fare in the 2010/11 season, especially as our oldest rivals are seemingly being linked to many star names.
However, given the financial woes which are currently plaguing Rangers, perhaps this could be the time to introduce more young players into the first team squad. We have all seen Danny Wilson and John Fleck make the move into the first team and having a good level of success there. Perhaps the lack of resources for signing new players could mark the beginning of a new era for Rangers with more young players such as Jordan McMillan, Jamie Ness etc making their claims for a first team place.
Many Rangers fans have made comments over the past few years about the lack of talent coming through from Murray Park, but those that are showing any kind of talent at the moment only get the chance to show what they can do for the likes of Partick Thistle, St Mirren or Hamilton Accies and very few get the chance to prove their worth to the club. In order to preserve the future of the club, this could be the time to build a team with more youngsters in it.
It must be said of course that this may mean a barren few years for the club, with only occasional cup success to sate our appetite for trophies. However, with the right coaching, encouragement and maybe even luck, we could be setting out on a Golden Generation of players in royal blue. The question of course is, would the fans accept two or three years of little or no silverware to build up a team?
There is of course a precedent for this way of thinking, and it is with the most successful club in recent English football history – Manchester United. Sir Alex Ferguson moulded his team around youngsters such as Beckham, Giggs, Scholes, the Neville brothers etc, and while it is highly unlikely that any club anywhere in the world could hope to bring in as many players of that calibre through at the same time, it has proved that you CAN win things with kids. More importantly, Sir Alex was given the time he needed to build and sculpt the team he knew he needed, he saw the future of the club in the youth ranks and was given the time to see his plans come to fruition, both by the club’s board and the supporters.
Can Rangers follow this plan? Only time will tell.
This whole situation is out of hand. Rangers at one point had more transfer funds than any club in Britain and now, we can’t even land a player as mediocre as Chris Eagles cos he wants ridiculous amounts of wages? He plays for Burnley who are now in the Championship and he is too shortsighted to see that he had the opportunity to advance his career with a season in the Champions league which he will now never see probably for the rest of his days as a player.
As for the youth coming through Murray Park; of course they are not good enough, they haven’t competed at the level required to win things in the SPL and it will take a hell of a lot more than a couple of seasons to rectify that problem.
What we need is what should have happened at the end of May; Rangers should have been sold and debts wiped out so we could focus on the future. Murray’s determination to turn a profit from the sale is going to kill us. Everywhere I look, I see Rangers fans slating Neil Lennon and blah blah blah but at least he is making moves to bolster his squad and Celtic aren’t exactly debt free. The sad thing is that these people slating Lennon are missing the real problem; its not only Celtic who are going to be a threat next year, its half of the SPL who have an unchanged team and know each other and how each other play. We have no world beaters in the squad to carry us and Steve Davis and Davie Weir can’t do this on their own with Miller up front and Bougherra playing the free role. Who is filling in the gaps? Naismith? Lafferty? Do me a favour; they should never have put on a Rangers shirt.
Rangers need drastic change and its going to take someone with money coming in to change it. Sad state of affairs but this is one Rangers fan who will be Royal and Loyal blue for whatever the season holds, but seriously, get our heads out of the clouds and minds out of cloud cuckoo land and face facts; we’re in trouble.
i whole-heartedly agree with the comments by tom King. as much as it pains me to say, celtic are signing some good name players and must be a shoe-in for the league this season. we are supposed to be “the famous glasgow rangers” so why are we full of mediocre players. i understand we cant go blowing £12 million on tore andre flo type players but murray must stump up some cash for players of an acceptable level and proven pedigree. murray should have sold up when he had the chance. another thing, rangers are still one of the best supported clubs in britain with just shy of 50,000 fans week in week out, where is murray putting all the revenue??????
I think we must start to bring through more youth but the thing I dont get is, look at where we are now, if we dont make Champions League next season where will we be ??? I thought that the idea of gettiing £10m plus a season for that would spur the bank or whoever is in charge to at least give us a great chance to get there !!!! Without CL money or a new buyer we’ll never pay the debts off so surely they gotta release a little to receive a lot ????