Neil McCann on MW Summer Signings

[chilledbear 16]

FORMER Rangers star Neil McCann has accused Mark Warburton of squandering his Rangers summer transfer budget.

 

The Ibrox boss’ recruits were also criticised by McCann, who reckons they have failed to make the desired impact since arriving at Ibrox in pre-season.

 

More than £2million was spent during the summer with a total of 11 players coming in, including £1.8m on Joe Garner joining the likes of Philippe Senderos, Niko Kranjcar and Clint Hill at Murray Park.

 

However, few have caught the eye in the Ladbrokes Premiership with marquee signing Joey Barton already having departed following a stormy short spell at the club.

 

 

McCann believes the Rangers transfer kitty was spent poorly as Rangers have fallen way of the top-flight pace to runaway leaders Celtic.

 

He said: “Of course you are judged on your signings. And then it is about trust. If you are giving money out are you going to trust your manager to spend wisely?

 

“[Matt] Crooks and [Jordan] Rossiter can be forgiven because of injuries. That is really unlucky and I actually think Rossiter is a good young player who will be a saleable asset.

 

“As for Crooks, I have spoken to a couple of people who say him and [Josh] Windass have lots to offer. So they have been unlucky there.

 

“Barton was an absolute disaster and I’ve said my piece on that. I think it was handled really badly.

 

“Kranjcar was nowhere near fit when he came from Cosmos. He was miles off the pace of the Scottish game. He was just starting to find it then he gets this horrible injury. So he’s gone.

 

“Senderos? What’s happened to him? I think there will be questions asked on recruitment and if you don’t have a lot of money to play with – albeit it’s quite a lot compared with everyone else in the league – you have to hope your manager spends it right.

 

“It hasn’t been – and I’m not speaking out of turn. It’s not worked because the boys haven’t made an impact on the pitch.

 

“It remains to be seen whether he is given some more. I’d imagine it’s moving people on to get people in.”

 

 

Barton was of course the most high profile recruit but one of the most frustrating players to come in has been that of former Preston striker Garner.

 

The 28-year-old has only managed to score three goals in 15 games during his time in Glasgow, with him being substituted off after just an hour in Saturday’s narrow 2-1 win over Partick Thistle.

 

However, McCann was reluctant to blame the out-of-sorts forward for his poor return, instead questioning Warburton’s judgment for bringing him in to an unfamiliar system in the first place.

 

He said: “I’ve watched him at Preston, he scored all manner of goals and a lot of them were crosses into the box.

 

“He said himself he wasn’t used to this style of football, but when you’re spending the lion’s share of your budget on someone who’s not used to that’s style of football, you question the player on why he’s come, has he been told it’ll be different and you question the manager on what his style is if he’s bringing a guy like that in.

 

“It’s as if Joe’s in the wrong movie.”

 

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/14934001.Mark_Warburton_has_squandered_summer_transfer_kitty_on_duff_signings__says_former_Rangers_star_Neil_McCann/?ref=twtrec

[rbr 1,254]

Would love to see McCann being given a coaching role at the club in some capacity , always liked the way he talks about football and some of his ideas are excellent .

[chilledbear 16]

Best pundit in Scotland by a mile.

[BrahimHemdani 1]

It's nonsense to suggest we need 4 CB's; when Kiernan went off injured at Parkhead he didn't bring on Hill.

 

No mention of Hodson or Gilks (did we need two 1st team goalkeepers when we had Kelly et al?) or Dodoo, hopefully he'll now get a run instead of Garner, who as MCann says isn't suited to our game.

[ian1964 10,625]

Any signing is a gamble!,hindsight is a wonderful thing!,as it stands some have not worked out but that's not to say they won't!

[Oleg_Mcnoleg 50]

Barton was poor and Garner hasn't exactly hit the ground running. But other than that, I'm not sure you can judge them failures. Even Senderos was a last minute freebie to provide a bit of cover so hardly constitutes a significant failure. Garner's the one that bothers me, I must say. We've been playing relatively poorly but, even so, a half decent striker would have seen us much closer to the tims and much clearer of the chasing pack. But with the money we've had to spend, we had to get a bit lucky. Thus far, we haven't.

Edited November 29, 2016 by Oleg_Mcnoleg
speillng msikates

[Barebear 37]

Any signing is a gamble!,hindsight is a wonderful thing!,as it stands some have not worked out but that's not to say they won't!

I agree Ian. I guarantee you that the great Brenda will never get it so right in one window again, we had to add quantity and got some wrong.

[chilledbear 16]

My worry is the system MW plays, one he tweeks but doesn't stray far from. I would have thought the signings should have been players who would fit the system, instead they are being asked to play different from their usual game. Especially MOH and Garner.

[craig 5,199]

It's nonsense to suggest we need 4 CB's; when Kiernan went off injured at Parkhead he didn't bring on Hill.

 

No mention of Hodson or Gilks (did we need two 1st team goalkeepers when we had Kelly et al?) or Dodoo, hopefully he'll now get a run instead of Garner, who as MCann says isn't suited to our game.

 

Hodson made sense. Freebie, fairly low wages, and we had ZERO full back cover and he provides cover in both positions.

 

Gilks - YES, you need a 2nd 1st teak GK. Relying on youngsters like Kelly in such an important position could literally break the kid's career. Aside from that, his wages wouldn't be prohibitive.

 

Dodoo - not sure why you brought him up BH - needs a run of games but seems to know where the goal is, as his goals on the weekend showed.

 

It isn't nonsense at all to suggest we need 4 CB's. IF we had been challenging for the title and one of the CB's got injured whilst another was out on suspension, you yourself would have been complaining at the lack of CB cover.

 

Every team should have 2 players for each position, if for nothing else other than competition. You can get around it with the likes of Hodson by having that versatility that can cover more than one position - but CB's tend to be just that, CB's.

 

Garner is probably the biggest disappointment to me - tries hard but we need a goalscorer, not a menace. Waghorn provided plenty of menace to opposition defences last season, we needed something different, and I don't see Garner being that much different to Waghorn. Dodoo would be my preference right now.

 

Garner is a disappointment probably more so because of how much we have spent on him.

[craig 5,199]

Any signing is a gamble!,hindsight is a wonderful thing!,as it stands some have not worked out but that's not to say they won't!

 

Exactly. Some players take time to settle, especially when being expected to play a different type of game than they are used to.

 

Windass has looked the part, Hill has done pretty well, Hodson has done OK when called upon and so too has Gilks. Kranjcar is difficult to blame anything on - yes he was unfit when he arrived but started to look the part when he got injured, not much you can do there. Dodoo is young and raw with plenty of potential.

 

He hasn't got them all wrong but most certainly has got some wrong. The important part is whether or not he learns from those mistakes.

 

He got almost every single signing right last season - and that has probably caused him a little criticism this season as we thought he really did wear a magic hat. Nobody does. Every single manager, including the very best in the game, get some of their signings wrong.