Dalglish - Rangers should sign more Scottish players to help national team

[Gribz 914]

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11788/12317854/sir-kenny-dalglish-says-rangers-boss-steven-gerrard-should-sign-more-scottish-players

 

Never heard so much nonsense. Where do you begin to debate this one. Firstly we sign players who benefit Rangers and the national team is not our responsibility at all.

 

 

[Whosthedado 1,703]

Predictable boring nonsense and that's without reading the article

[Bill 13,717]

I can’t be arsed reading stuff like this. 

[MacK1950 2,399]

As much as I would like to see more Scottish players in Scottish teams it would only be if they could be of a benefit to these teams and not for Scotland national team.

[Bluedell 5,679]

There are no players in the Scotland team under £15m who would improve Rangers.

[stewarty 2,060]

Em, we signed Scott Wright and Jon McLaughlin last season.  Its also rumoured we are interested in Ferguson from the Sheep.  We have 6 U21s selected in their most recent squad and have a whole host of players playing at all youth levels.

 

What exactly is it about our recruitment strategy that doesn't already suggest we will sign Scotland qualified players if they are the right calibre and fit with how Gerrard wants to play?

[alexscottislegend 2,375]

On 27/05/2021 at 11:00, stewarty said:

Em, we signed Scott Wright and Jon McLaughlin last season.  Its also rumoured we are interested in Ferguson from the Sheep.  We have 6 U21s selected in their most recent squad and have a whole host of players playing at all youth levels.

 

What exactly is it about our recruitment strategy that doesn't already suggest we will sign Scotland qualified players if they are the right calibre and fit with how Gerrard wants to play?

Agree. Celtic only had Welsh in the U21 squad. Anyone know what position Ben Williamson plays?

[stewarty 2,060]

8 minutes ago, alexscottislegend said:

Agree. Celtic only had Welsh in the U21 squad. Anyone know what position Ben Williamson plays?

Central midfield.  Had a good season on loan at Arbroath and was their young player of the year.

[JohnMc 2,801]

As ever the headline is a little misleading, wishing the best side in Scotland had a couple more Scots in it is hardly news. 

 

When looking to buy a player Rangers always look at Scotland first. That doesn't always mean the player will be Scottish (Novo, Kamara for example), but there's a higher likelihood they will be. If for example the club is looking for a central midfielder we'll look at who is available in Scotland first. This is perfectly logical as someone already based in Scotland knows the league and is probably on a poorer salary than we'll pay them making a move to Rangers both attractive financially as well as from a football perspective. This also removes all potential issues around settling in, if a player is based in Dundee or Aberdeen they'll probably need to move house but it's hardly a huge upheaval for the player's family. The other attraction of a Scottish player is European squads. There's still a requirement to have a certain amount of 'home grown' players in the registered European squads each season. This is probably why a player like Jamie Barjonas was retained despite never looking like he'd get a game. He was cover just in case we'd a terrible run of injuries. 

 

Rangers have signed Murphy, Middleton, Hastie, McLoughlin and Wright in recent seasons and we were seriously linked with Shinnie and McLean. Some have fared better than others, but looking for 'local' players is clearly still a big part of our plan.

Now, why Scotland isn't producing better quality players is a whole other thread...