DMAA

I was just trying to remember all the outs so far in the window so I've listed them below, a few have not been confirmed but look very close to going through. You'd have to think that a lot of money has been saved and made already in this window when you total up the wages of those 8. Aside from youth players, Polster is the only other guy mooted for a move who isn't on this list. With Docherty and King away I would actually be very surprised if there was any substance to the rumors of Polster going out because he's surely needed to cover both in centre mid and right back. If he is moved on then it suggests the gaffer is comfortable with Halliday and Edmundsson as cover in midfield and Patterson, Flanagan and Halliday covering full back. Jones was also mooted for a move but after a good performance in Dubai I think that is a non-starter. All in all Ross Wilson seems to be doing a very good job where Mark Allen failed and with 2 weeks left in the window we can hold onto hope that we will see 1 addition.

Outs: 1. Docherty to Sunderland (loan), 2. Herrera to Atletico San Luis (permanent but not yet confirmed), 3. Grezda to Osijek (permanent, > £100,000 plus sell on reported), 4. Rudden to Partick (permanent, nominal fee + sell on), 5. Murphy to Burton (loan), 6. Atakayi to SJK (permanent, £100,000 reported), 7. Middleton to St Mirren (loan, not yet confirmed), 8. King to Leciester (end of loan)

1 hour ago, onevision said:

Happened to me.

I mean because he is a professional footballer and any pains would surely be interrogated early and not left to get to that stage.

50 minutes ago, der Berliner said:

... which coincides with the rumours that Tav's appendix has burst and he'll be out for a month. Rumours for the time being.

No reason to believe it at this stage. Seems to me very inprobable it would get to the stage of bursting.

10 hours ago, ian1964 said:

Bill Leckie launches an astonishing attack on Morelos in the Sun, best/worst one yet!!!!

Read it, absolutely reprehensible. The attacks from the media on this man are unprecedented. Guys who have intentionally injured their fellow professionals repeatedly have never had anything like this from the media.  

Rudden to Thistle has been confirmed for a nominal fee and a sell on. Can only imagine they’ve agreed to a huge sell-on because he’s only 19 and they are getting a top prospect. 

1 hour ago, Rousseau said:

I want a % of any sell-on fee and a buy-back clause -- we should do the latter more often, like European clubs. 

That’s a very good point. Rudden has potential but clauses like that would make it far easier to let guys go. 

16 hours ago, Rousseau said:

I saw him on Gary Neville's Soccerbox (?). I was really impressed with his desire to learn; I lost count of the number of times he questions why things were done in-game by his managers in the past, and in games he watches now. In the above podcast he mentions asking Klopp why he does certain things. 

It is a sign of humility to be so interested in why other managers are doing things and trying to learn from them. It's a very good sign and bodes well for him.

1 hour ago, craig said:

The other thing is that, as Gerrard builds his squad and makes it much stronger and putting teams to the sword more often, it will eventually result in comfortable leads which allows the youngsters the odd 30 minutes here and there.  Along with that, we can bring youngsters in for full games given the starting XI is so strong - we haven't had that for years where you can actually carry a player or two.

That's quite a thought. If we can keep improving our squad it could happen, but that's a big if. Replacing Alfredo's goals could be the biggest recruitment challenge Rangers will face this whole decade.

17 minutes ago, alexscottislegend said:

Exactly! Why don't we see the likes of King, Young-Coombes, Kelly, Mayo, Kennedy, Mepude et al at least on the bench? Liverpool put 5 youngsters with limited experience on the field v Everton in the cup and emerged triumphant. if we are modelling our style of play on them why not their strategy too?

I think we will see this more in 1-2 years. The best of our young players are a bit younger and not quite there yet. Another variable this season is that goal difference is looking important so if we are 3-0 up the foot can't come off the gas.

1 hour ago, JohnMc said:

It's funny you mention the injuries, I've stopped myself mentioning this on a few occasions in case I jinx us! If that does happen it's on you!! ?

 

As regards your 'cream' point I'm far from convinced being an outstanding 16 year old is any indicator of how your career will go. Glance at Scottish international youth sides of the last 30 years and you'll see hundreds of names you don't recognise. In 2014 Scotland under 17s reached the semi-finals of the European Championships, have a look at the squad, how many of those boys, the cream at the time, do you expect to go on and have good to exceptional careers? - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_UEFA_European_Under-17_Championship_squads#Scotland 

Quite staggering they made ot to the semi finals of any competition. Went through the players there and the guy playing at the highest level of all of them is Craig Wighton for 2nd bottom Hearts and he's only made 3 appearances all season (albeit he's apparently had an injury). Robby McCrorie looks the pick fo the bunch but most are in the lower divisions.

40 minutes ago, BlackSocksRedTops said:

Doh. Is the other Croatian guy a striker? 

Yeh Maric. Doesn’t sound like anything is happening with him. 

8 minutes ago, BlackSocksRedTops said:

No problem whatsoever if this happens. I've always thought the Balkan leagues offer the best value in today's bloated transfer market. Players are generally technically gifted and adapt well to the the Scottish/British game (Prso, Jelavic, Barasic and Katic). 

 

Maybe a sign that we are laying the foundations for a summer departure for Alfie?

He’s a playmaker type centre mid

Guy who claims to be ITK says Lovro Majer isn’t interested in the offers he’s had from Spain and Russia and wants to come to Rangers and will wait until the summer if he has to. Given he’d cost €6m+ I would think if it happens at all it will be in the summer. 

3 minutes ago, Frankie said:

Agreed - and thanks for not C&Ping the sub-based stuff...

 

Feel free to add the link though.

Forgot to do that, added it now

Jordan Campbell has written another excellent article at The Athletic. I don't agree with copying and pasting from there but I'll share some of the points he made.

• Barisic has played in 22 of the last 23 games (the accusation last season was that he was made of glass)
• He shared a heatmap showing the average position of Rangers players in the 3-0 win over Hibs and Barisic was the 3rd furthest forward player behind only Morelos and Aribo (further forward than Kent)
• More assists than Tavernier despite the stats showing he is less involved in the play (less actions, passes, crosses), but much more involved than he was last season
• Osijek's strategy was to switch play to him fast so he has space and Goldson is finding him much more often with long passes and the average distance of his passes to him is up massively

Don't want to share too much but hopefully that gives an idea.

If you aren't signed up I'd suggest doing so as it's good quality Rangers journalism and with a referral link you can get it for £2.99 a month.

https://theathletic.com/1501631/2020/01/08/how-borna-barisic-rebalanced-rangers/

2 hours ago, buster. said:

We rolled the dice in a calculated manner, upping levels of professionalism throughout the football operation and we are seeing the benefits. That said, the gamble is still in-play until we win the League.

A comment from Dave King a while back summed our approach up when he said we had changed strategy and invested heavily in the management. The investment across youth, scouting, marketing etc. seems to be going very well and the big prize that would pay for it would be the league and subsequently Champions League money but we are still at the dreaming stage at the moment.

9 minutes ago, buster. said:

Thank´s elfideldo !!

 

With Leon King looking likely to follow the Billy Gilmour route, the problem seems to be the ability level that stands out, does so to other more resourced clubs in more attractive leagues...and therefore we don´t get the cream of our own crop to tread a pathway into the first team.

There are strong rumours he has decided to stay. We'll find out soon.

22 minutes ago, JFK-1 said:

Hopefully more promising than Hastie has seemingly proven to be.  Hastie will soon be 21 and if he can't secure a starting berth at league one Rotherham which he can't then I don't see how he's ever supposed to get into a Rangers team.

A bit early to say that. We don’t even know if their formation or style suits him. Hastie is raw but does have some genuine quality and has time. 

31 minutes ago, elfideldo said:

Only seen him play against us in the last couple of years. Decent player and one of the better players out with Rangers. I wouldn't have had him down as a "must sign" target but a good addition. 

 

In saying that I have never seen him play left-back or centre back as described. He has always played in midfield and in the last game against Rangers he played just behind the striker.

Interesting. I checked his caps for Scotland to see how they rated him. These things are obviously fast changing at that age but in the 3 games at the beginning of last year he was a sub in all 3 games in midfield.

In the 3 games at the end of 2019 he seems to have been 2nd choice left back behind the Celtic left back, playing the full game as captain in the middle game and coming off the bench in the other two for half an hour or so. He came on at left back in one game left wing in the other. 

The fact he’s played on the wing suggests he’s an attacking full back which would tie in with @elfideldo‘s comment. 

55 minutes ago, ian1964 said:

 

Great news. What’s he like @elfideldo?

2 hours ago, ian1964 said:

 

At least he's saying that. A number of other pundits wouldn't condemn them and would probably sympathise with them on it.

FWIW they do have a point that the process is very inconsistent but they should know fine well that they have benefited from that inconsistency more than they have suffered from it.

They'll fight tooth and nail because they know every game counts now.

1 hour ago, BlackSocksRedTops said:

I see Scott Sinclair is possibly going to Preston. Worth a punt as an attacking option? ???? Imagine the Timplosion?

They'll draw a sigh of relief to get him off the books, 40 odd grand a week he's on apparently.

37 minutes ago, Gaffer said:

In my opinion we need to stop using the term "only 21" as if that's young enough to still develop the necessary skills.  If players haven't developed the technical skills at that age, it is unlikely they will at all

That's basically my thoughts on McCrorie. However as @Frankie says defence is his most likely future position and it is possible that he could become a squad player in that position. At the moment I find even this unlikely because we have 4 excellent centre backs at the club and I don't think he'll cut it at right back for the same reason as centre mid.