The “Rangers” Review And Their Pitiful Defence Of Their Lack Of Transfer Activity.
Soccer Football - Europa League - Final - Eintracht Frankfurt v Rangers - Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, Seville, Spain - May 18, 2022 Rangers' Aaron Ramsey looks dejected after losing the penalty shoot-out REUTERS/John Sibley
What did I say earlier? That the Ibrox fan media will swallow anything.
Over the last two days there have been a number of interesting little moments in the media which hint at a new directive from the Dark Tower of Mordor. The first is one that had me laughing like Hell when I read it yesterday; the new valuation on Calvin Bassey.
The Record “jury” was polled on what an acceptable bid would be.
Now, these are the people who have spent weeks promoting this £25 million nonsense, which we’ve all been pissing ourselves laughing at.
They all said exactly the same thing.
They all came back with £15 million. And that’s not an accident, is it? This is the start of the big backtrack, this is them trying to drum up interest in the player at a much lower fee than was initially proposed, and they are preparing the fans for that.
Because at £25 million nobody was biting. Stories from England that Villa, who were the key club they were hoping to have buy him, believe that if they need a left back that they can get a better one than him, and for cheaper, have obviously spooked Ibrox.
Now, tonight, The Rangers Review, that hilarious “sister publication” of The Celtic Way, is running a story about how Van Bronckhorst backs “refresh over rebuild.” In short, that he prefers to re-sign players on their last legs and rely on the squad he had last season than spend money in the transfer market in order to make the team better.
The sound of gears grinding as the key in the writer’s back gets turned is louder than the moon-howling, and the bulk of their support won’t swallow it for a moment no matter how much the “official club partners” try to spin this line.
Van Bronckhorst almost certainly knows that funds are limited; The Athletic reported on that story over a month ago.
He’s got cash for perhaps one player and beyond that he’s relying on sales. The efforts to punt the players currently at the club are failing just as they usually do, and desperation is in the air now. And the fans are being prepped for bad news.
Not that it will be presented as bad news. It will be presented in the way The Rangers Review is trying to do it right now; as a positive. It’s not even terribly hard to work out what the line would be; this team was good enough to reach a European final, therefore as long as they can basically hold it together they are good to go.
But that team won seven games out of twenty-one in Europe. They lost the league to a Celtic team which is going to get stronger, and that will happen this very week.
Refresh over rebuild; that’s glorious. What a way to spin it.
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Celtic’s summer started disastrously when Eddie Howe turned the club down. On which date did he make that fateful decision?
