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The Musonda Deal Is Further Proof Of How Far Ahead Of The Ibrox Club We Are.

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Sevco has signed five players in this window. Four of them have been boyhood fans of the club. That is not a coincidence. That was the intent. They want people who “understand” what being a Sevco player is all about. With six years of history, they are tough to find. What they mean, of course, is Rangers and that’s just part of their problem.

What is it with that club and this kind of claptrap?

They seem to believe being a fan makes you a better player; try telling that to any Celtic scout who ever watched me attempt to play the game. Their answer – fill the team with DeadCo supporters – is so narrow minded and stupid it barely needs pointing out.

But there’s a deeper reason for their “transfer strategy” of course.

During the summer, they had a Portuguese manager who was able to sell the idea of the club to a handful of players he had worked with or who knew of him. Warburton was able to do the same when he was boss. The selling job was easy in those cases; they were players no-one else really wanted and they had an affinity with the manager.

The real reason for Sevco’s limited transfer strategy is that no-one with a reputation – either growing or established already – would want to sign for them unless that spiritual link existed. And I use spiritual the way ghost hunters do; a reference to something that’s dead but might be hanging around like a bad smell.

Murty knows nobody of any repute. Top players will not come to Ibrox to play under a rank amateur they’ve never heard of. He has no gravitas. Four of their signings are here on short term loans; they have the opportunity to sign one of them when the season ends, if they can scrape the money together. But without significant funds this is the best they can do.

By the time the season ends, Celtic will have had Patrick Roberts for two and half years; that’s longer than some of the players we’ve signed have stuck around. Musonda will be here for a minimum of 18 months. Dembele, Sinclair, Ntcham … these signings are a level many miles above what Sevco is capable of attracting. Part of it is our manager; Musonda is apparently effusive about playing under Rodgers, who knew him from the Chelsea Academy.

Champions League football and the chance to win things is part of it too. Above and beyond that, listen to how Brendan spoke today; we’re a club with a reputation for this now, a club where top young players can come and improve and that has nothing to do with us being seen as a feeder club as some stupid people have insisted. It is, as Brendan says, about a philosophy, an ethos. It is about a way in which you approach every element of the game.

You need to be a big club to even have an ethos. Sevco has had a dozen transfer windows now and has built half a dozen teams. They’ve sacked three full time managers. They’ve ditched two different boards. The idea of thinking more than one step at a time never dawns on them, and that’s why no club would trust them with young gems such as this one.

Celtic has had a quiet window since the first week when we signed two players, one of whom went straight back to his club on loan. But this was the signing we had been hoping for. A defender and a goalkeeper would complete the picture.

But the fundamental difference between us and them won’t be found in the league table and it won’t be found in the number of signings. It is found in the quality of this young man and the trust that yet another top flight EPL club has placed in us by handing us one of their gems on a long term loan. Clubs know we can develop our own players and they will buy them from us at high prices. They also know we can make their own better.

And that’s why we will continue to attract good footballers, either on loan or on permanent deals. This club has weight. It has gravitas. It has a manager whose name rings out. Above and beyond even the money, these are the things that make us what we are.

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