Yesterday I saw an unusual headline; the suggestion that Ibrox has sent a warning to us by getting its rebuild started early. I won’t name and shame the publication which put it up, because I want to avoid coming across as cruel. They probably deserve it though.
Because if this is a warning, it is the least intimidating one since the last time we were told that “Rangers are coming.” Coming from where? Back from the dead? Why are Celtic fans laughing? Because on paper, this “rebuild” has started ridiculously.
Who are the players who we are supposed to be afraid of?
A Brazilian left back, who will cost £400,000 and who they beat off competition from Cyprus to get. A player whose selling point is that he is “the best defender in Bulgaria”. A South African striker playing in Romania. And Liam Kelly, who I said would have been a decent backup keeper for us but no more than that, on a free? Are you kidding?
If I was devising my dream scenario for what this rebuild would look like, and had I published this, most people would have dismissed it as too ridiculous for words. Hibs and Aberdeen will have to rebuild; if this was one of them, what would you think of it? This is the question I’ve asked several times when we’ve been treated to Ibrox rebuild hype, and it never gets old. This reminds me of the Warburton rebuild, or the Caixinha one.
Remember the hype about his Spanish and Mexican players? I recall posing that question then; if Aberdeen were signing these guys, what would we think of it? It was obvious that these were pretty low-tier footballers. These guys virtually scream the same.
This is the first four signings who are supposed to wrestle the league title away from this team next season, after we’ve spent real money on it? There has to be more. There almost certainly will be more. But this screams of “buy cheap and hopefully one day sell for a profit”, a weird effort to replicate what they think it is that we have done.
It’s also a punt based on the success of our Japanese players. Except that made perfect sense, although I shamefully overlooked that at the time; the J League is rated much more highly than ours and has sent top class footballers all over Europe. In contrast is the South Korean league, where we’ve experimented with signings and gotten little satisfaction.
To call what they are doing a high-risk strategy is to put it mildly. It’s ludicrous. When we signed Kyogo we obviously planned to sign at least one other Japanese player – Maeda – whose club would not sell at the time. We ended up with six of them on the books, with four of them still in the first team squad and playing regularly … this was based on first-hand knowledge of these guys from Ange Postecoglou, a man who knew chapter and verse.
The whole thing just seems a bit bizarre to me. If this is their new “head of scouting” their fans should be worried. There’s not much visible strategy here. These certainly aren’t the sorts of players who are going to strike fear into the hearts of our supporters.
I’m not judging these guys early – that would be just as mad as whatever this strategy appears to be – but it won’t keep me up at night either.
What they dae in the close season disnae matter tae us right now. Big changes in activity needed from lawwell and desmond, with regards tae strengthenin our own team. Let’s hope the fact that the ibrox club are financially strugglin, disnae encourage them tae fail in givin BR what he wants and use it as an excuse for once again, resortin tae their usual strategy. We’ll wait and see.
I am few weeks time ,it will.be the usual.”Jetting in,” Swoops for !! ,turned down other clubs !!
Our own board has made a habit of getting recruitment spectacularly wrong, so I have absolutely no faith in them getting this one right. The tone from BR appears to be confident, but i’ll wait till the window closes as he had the same tone prior to the January window and we know how deflated we all were when that closed!
@ dixie d. Agree and If incredibly ( tho unsurprisingly) they follow the same pattern i. e. Silence, days- weeks, goin by with nae news or updates. A token signin followed by some ‘prospect’ or other. SURELY once and for all, the Celtic support will ALL see whit absolute fools they’re bein taken for. This close season should be their last chance tae show some ambition. If not, there should be action taken from all the support, by some organized shape or form tae get them out. Anyway, let’s hopefully get Saturday dealt with, it’s our team and manager who deserve the credit for our success this season.
It did not take long for the Scottish sports tabloids to get that nice warm feeling dripping down their scoops ‘ legs with a hugely overpriced possible theRangers new signing ? The £400.000 ‘ best defender in Bulgaria’ has been increased dramatically to £3.2 million by the ever loyal the Sun …that mainstay of honest and factual reporting ! Can’t wait for the price tags being exaggerated by the daily Record scoops for new Ibroxland recruits ? The millions and millions of £’s for Butland will seem like pocket change in comparison ! I bet nobody in scoop land ever enquires at a presser “explain where the money will come from ?” I wonder why not ?
Come next monday no matter what happens on saturday get the board out get real business people in people who want to take us forward
The rangers will need bulk though as there could be 10 players shipping out. The media need to sell papers and clicking bait based on spectacular headlines and forced narratives but every year the Celtic fans just point and laugh as the next biggest, bestest manager or players come through for a fleeting visit. The players often believing the hype and taking to social media for us all to have a laugh at.
When Clemente gets in his own galacticos and they fail in 10 months time he will be punted (if not before) and prolly taking a big share of next season’s SB money. Rinse repeat, they never learn. That’s the fun part.
They may have 2 or 3 acceptable players in that investment and the rest of the high paid bunch will be moved out at media inflated prices based on reaching the moon add-on targets. Like Patterson to Everton, feel good factor, stark contrast to financial reality.
We will move out a few hopefully cost neutral getting back most of the outlay and hope there is no forced selling unless it is an incredible offer that we can re-invest.
Brendan is known for taking his time in the transfer market but he has hinted more priority this time, I hope that is the case and things have been worked on past few months.
HH bring on Saturday…..
And, And, And…..
Here we go again,
We’re on the road again,
We’re on the road again,
We’re on our way to Paradise,
We love those Gillibears,
And just to stop their swears,
We’ll Lie and Lie and Lie,
They have no place in Paradise…
Grafetti on the walls, just as The Hun was going down,
I seen grafetti on the walls (about The Huns, about The Huns)
Grafetti on the walls that says, ‘They’re Tragic, They’re Tragic’
Grafetti on the wall, Grafetti on the wall…
And it says….
Ah well there it starts James – The long oul’ summer ahead to please The Gullibillies and of course they’ll but these rags in their droves and keep The Scummy Scottish Football Media in employment…
Finally I’m back to posting after two brilliant days of magnificent partying in Trongate, Gallowgate, and taking in the women’s game v Hibernian which just ended up so very Celtic-y – Drama till the end…
That was one magnificent party all round – Everyone was so happy, no fighting, great colour, happiness and sing song in complete contrast to George Squares Hunfest detest…
Not one bit of trouble did I see – One girl was being sick that was all the mess I witnessed…
And she was a female, so could be pregnant for all I know and have morning sickness – even though it was the evening !
Hopefully we do it all once again next year… To sicken the Scummy Scottish Football Media once again…
If they stop us on The Trongate – Then lets take over Glasgow Green…
Cos Glasgow’s Green anyway !
They’re half with pure envy – And our half with pure Colour !!!
Hail Hail to everyone – And hopefully your hangover recovery was bloody well quicker than mine was !
Is Kelly coming in as a replacement for Butland or a back-up? If a replacement then Clement will have an even longer face than recently.
They need all the feel good stories they can get at ibrox.
Should Celtic win the cup on Saturday the Rangers will need more than feel good propaganda to survive on.
You will notice that stories like these are released to appease the Rangers fans whenever anything is going against them.
Hail Hail