Happy with the summer transfer activity?

[Super_Ally 0]

The following article on the Rangers website:

 

Steve Davis. My Rangers Delight

 

suddenly got me thinking about our summer transfer dealings. I don't want to discuss the fact that it was done far too late. We all know that, there's not going to be any interesting views raised on that point. I also know it's too early to judge players, i'm merely talking first impressions.

 

However approximately a third of the way down the page is the following paragraph:

 

Davis has become the eight major signing of this season following Kenny Miller, Kyle Lafferty, Andreas Velicka, Madjid Bougherra, Pedro Mendes, Aaron and US star Maurice Edu

 

Immediately I thought that's a fairly impressive transfer spree and I wondered what everyone else thought of the inidividual signings and how they have improved or otherwise the squad.

 

Beginning with Davis then. As long as he's not played on the right he could be a great signing. Needs to rediscover his form of his first few games at the club and the signs last night suggest he's in good form. Competition for places in the middle of the park is incredible.

 

Kye Lafferty - A vastly inflated transfer fee, although it suggests signs of forward planning and long term thinking from the club. the only way this transfer made sense to me was to buy up a young rising star on a long contract, showcase him at a big European club and in Europe (ok not thsi season now but in future) and sell him on at a profit. His qualities as a player do not suggest a �£4million pound player, but if we can sell him on for more than that after a couple of seasons of good performances then it could be the way forward for a club that does not have the mega bucks of a bigger league. Is a risky strategy that relies on the ability to spot players.

 

Andreas Velicka - Looked a very good prospect in pre-season. In fleeting appearances he did more than some of our other forward players. A physical presence with an eye for goal. Outwith Boyd perhaps our only other genuine goal threat from our strikers.

 

Madjid Bougherra - Huge boots to fill with the departure of last year POTY. Should have seen the writing on the wall regarding Cuellar when Madjid was brought in. Early signs are promising, strong, defensively sound and comfortable on the ball. With the realisation that star players with such large transfer fees as Cuellar will be sold on the club has to be able to bring in replacements at a reduced fee that the management believe can pcik up where the old player left off. Can madjid do this. Who knows, but certainly we might have struggle to find a better replacement. Need to find him a long term partner now.

 

Pedro Mendes - Again hard to comment with just one appearance to go on. What an appearance though. MOTM in his first game, running the midfield and therefore the match. Forged an excellent understanding with Thomson immediately that will be encouarging to all fans. Again adds to the excellent choices in the centre of the field. Will be really exciting when Ferguson is back to link up with the former Pompey star.

 

Aaron - An unkown to myself, but highly rated in Spain. Sounded very exciting in a bounce game with killie. Could really light up our play down the left flank and help us lose the winning ugly mantra. Will Smith trust a relative youngster though?

 

Edu - Signing will hopefully be confirmed tomorrow as a work permit is agreed. Again an unkown but already a international and few players seem to leave the MLS for multi million pound fees suggesting this player may have something different to your average US player. Worried by the noises that he is a utility player though. Look at Dailly and to a lesser extent Ian Murray to see why.

 

Miller - �£2mil wasted on a goal-shy forward. A significant part of our early transfer spending wasted on him that no doubt contributed to our early European exit, costing us approximately �£12million. Getting what we expect. A lot of running but little end product. The headless chicken act. Law of averages as a forward player for Rangers you're going to have the odd good momment such as the run v Hearts to create the goal that sealed the points. Needs to show a killer instinct if he is to win over the fans, but his career suggests that is unlikely to happen. Why some fans and supposed experts of the game laud a player for trying hard and running about a lot is frankly mystifying.

 

8 signings, 5 of which impress me with 2 i've yet to really see. Obviously all have a long way to go to prove themselves at the club but the early signs are encouraging.

 

Yet again we have the strongest squad in the country, on paper at least. Without the distraction of an extended European run we have to fancy ourselves to win back the title and anything less should not be tolerated.

[craig 5,199]

Nice article and agreed on the vast majority of it.

 

I am not a big Miller fan but I think you are being a tad harsh on him with the "Law of averages as a forward player for Rangers you're going to have the odd good momment such as the run v Hearts to create the goal that sealed the points" statement. Why do I feel you were harsh ? Because KM created that chance for himself with no influence from other Gers players and he started the run pretty much on the halfway line.

 

I do agree Re law of averages in general - which makes our forward line look less appealing as none of them seem to be putting the chances away !

[Super_Ally 0]

Nice article and agreed on the vast majority of it.

 

I am not a big Miller fan but I think you are being a tad harsh on him with the "Law of averages as a forward player for Rangers you're going to have the odd good momment such as the run v Hearts to create the goal that sealed the points" statement. Why do I feel you were harsh ? Because KM created that chance for himself with no influence from other Gers players and he started the run pretty much on the halfway line.

 

I do agree Re law of averages in general - which makes our forward line look less appealing as none of them seem to be putting the chances away !

 

I am a bit harsh on him. Not because he's an ex-Celtic player. But because a player with such few positive attributes related to the game has stolen a living from it, because our manager who is so highly revered has a blind spot when it comes to his obvious deficiencies and because I and the public in general are continually patronised by our media about his ability to play the game and his performances in games that we can clearly see ourselves have been poor.

 

For me, last night summed up what a poor footballer he is. A "trier" like him shouldn't be playing above junior level.

[UCF2008 0]

Happy with the summer transfer activity?

 

In a word, yes

[pete 2,499]

I remember us all saying we were happy with PLG's signings so i will hold my opinion till a later date and i have seen more of the said players. Davis is the only midfield player i really know and i am still undecided about him.

To be honest i am more worried that Smith will ruin any positives the new players have. I don't have a high opinion of Walter smith as a coach i am afraid.

[Zappa 0]

Have to agree with you 100% on Miller Super_Ally. He's the only signing I'd say was a complete waste of money. Reckon we could've signed a better player from the 3rd division for about 20 grand. There's certainly no shortage of players around that have decent pace & know how to make wasted runs or generally just run around like headless chickens. These are things that anyone could do. Take a stoat down argyle street & grab 20 random geezers. Guaranteed one of them would turn out to be a better goal scorer than KM.

[gisabeer 409]

I think we are harsh on miller. He played far better on saturday that both Mcculloch and the vastly overpriced lafferty (we are certainly going to be left out of pocket with this one) when he came on and did brilliantly for the penalty.

 

i dont expect him to be a 20 + goals a season player. but then again cousin and darcheville couldnt manage it either.

 

 

The only thing i dont like about the new signings is that they are a month two late. Had we signed them earlier we would still be in the CL and in with a chance of pocketing a guarenteed 8 mill which would cover the cost of the signings.

 

i dont care what the club says about cuellar. i believe they had fully intended to sell him at the end of last season and knew he was for the off.

 

Walter has really made a hash of it this summer. In fact he couldnt have done it any worse. But i think Mr bain and his petty negotiating skills should shoulder some of the blame too.

[Zappa 0]

i dont expect him to be a 20 + goals a season player. but then again cousin and darcheville couldnt manage it either.

KM struggles to put in 20 goals in 3 seasons, so I don't quite see the point of bringing cousin or JCD into the equation since they both scored a decent number of goals for us last season; each scored more in 1 season for us than KM scored in his previous 2/3 seasons. The situation with Misser as I see it, is that you can't turn a pig into a supermodel.

[Zappa 0]

Btw, despite the fact that I think KM is sheeite, I think the booing of him at the weekend was well out of order.

[Gribz 850]

On paper I am very happy with our signings overall because we balanced the squad out much better eventually.

 

Everyone will be judged over a few months for me, I dont want to give knee jerk reactions.

 

Im not a massive Miller fan but i have always liked him for Scotland but playing for Rangers is slightly different that Rangers arent underdogs and hoping to snatch something on the break.

 

Right now Im as in the air as everyone as to who the best striking partnership is from our list of strikers.