Rangers check out Argentine full-back
RANGERS are monitoring the situation of Argentine right-back Leonel Di Placido. The Ibrox side are assessing the 25-year-old as a potential longterm replacement for James Tavernier, although the English transfer window closed last Thursday without any bids for the club captain. Despite being available for a knockdown £1million, the Ibrox club could revisit Di Placido as a potential loan deal. The Lanus full-back has an Italian passport, with La Liga sides Espanyol and Leganes also keen. The right-back was called up to the Argentina national squad for their two friendlies against Colombia and Guatemala last September, but stayed on the bench for both games.
WHATEVER Mark Warburton’s shortcomings as a football manager happened to be, it would have been harsh in the extreme to barrack the man for his inability to manage the expectations of supporters.
August 6, 2016, was a red letter day for Rangers. Exiled from the top flight for four years after their financial crash in 2012, the visit of Hamilton to Ibrox naturally came with an air of expectation.
For the former Brentford manager, though, the sight of a giant Tifo display suggesting that a 55th league title was imminent made his blood run cold.
Publicly, of course, Warburton was unable to articulate what his inner-voice was telling him. Against a Celtic side revitalised by the arrival of Brendan Rodgers, Rangers’ chances of delivering a first flag since 2011 at the first time of asking were somewhere between slim and zero.
‘When we walked out to that “Going for 55” in that first game against Hamilton, my heart sank,’ Warburton recalled.
‘That wasn’t the message. The fans were rocking, they lit the blue touch paper there: “We’re going to win the league”. We weren’t going to win the league. It was (a question of getting) up, consolidate, build the squad.
‘I just felt that message was wrong from day one because you all saw it, the stadium looked magnificent, but they weren’t going to go and win a title. You can’t say that at the start of a season because it sounds negative.’
A 1-1 draw that day pretty much made the point for him, though. As the weeks rolled by and two points were shipped at Kilmarnock before a 5-1 hiding at Celtic Park, even Warburton’s more modest expectation of ‘being competitive’ that term looked to be ambitious.
By the end of the season, a side built around yesterday’s men like Joey Barton and Niko Kranjcar were nine points behind Aberdeen and 39 behind Celtic, the manager having been ousted in the February.
It was a chastening experience for all associated with the Ibrox club. One that appears to have stuck in the collective psyche.
Because, despite a growing body of evidence that Steven Gerrard’s side can stay the pace with Celtic this term, the volume has been dialled down on what Rodgers once referred to as the ‘noise’ emanating from Ibrox.
The former Liverpool captain can naturally do nothing about what the rank and file say and do but, if matters continue apace, he might have to arm himself with a cattle prod to prevent his players acknowledging that a first title since 2011 is very much attainable this term.
The body of evidence is certainly mounting; In each of the past three seasons, Rangers have never recovered from an early stumble. They drew first time out with Accies in 2016, lost at home to Hibs in their second game of 2017-18 and drew at Pittodrie in their opening game of last season. Each were blows from which they never recovered.
You actually have to go back to that last title-winning season of 2010-11 to find the last time Rangers ticked off the first two league assignments.
For those of a light blue persuasion looking for positive omens, their opponents back then were also Kilmarnock and Hibernian.
It’s early days, of course, but the fact the Rugby Park and Easter Road outfits have been dispatched this time around can only be encouraging.
Both have been the most obdurate opponents in recent times; Gerrard’s side failed to beat Kilmarnock in the league last season and saw off Hibs just once. Accordingly, there is a sense of demons being exorcised.
If there was little to admire about the opening-day victory at Rugby Park other than the result, Sunday’s 6-1 routing of Hibernian was every bit as impressive as the scoreline suggested.
In the opening half hour, Gerrard’s men were simply irresistible. The pace at which they won the ball back and moved it around flummoxed their opponents.
Their passing was sharp and precise, their weight of pass and movement as good as anything Ibrox has seen in many a long year. If there was a criticism to be made, it was that they were not out of sight by half-time.
The dismissal of Sean Mackie may have killed off Hibs’ hopes of an unlikely comeback after the break but Rangers certainly made their depleted ranks pay in the way previous Ibrox sides would not have done.
Jermain Defoe completed the textbook hat-trick (right foot, left foot, header), Alfredo Morelos smashed home twice after being unleashed from the bench before Sheyi Ojo converted on the spin at the death.
Having been asked the question by Celtic in successive weekends, Gerrard’s men answered it resoundingly.
The beauty of the emphatic victory, from the manager’s perspective, was that it came on the back of a taxing Europa League game in Denmark against Midtjylland.
On the back of that 4-2 win, he was able to shuffle his pack to the extent that Scott Arfield was rested, Morelos was only required for the final 14 minutes and Andy Halliday for the last ten.
Halliday and James Tavernier are now the only survivors from Warburton’s brief, troubled tenure in the top flight.
Back then, Wes Foderingham was protected by Phillipe Senderos and Rob Kiernan. Now Connor Goldson and Nikola Katic stand in front of Allan McGregor.
Where previously Barton and Kranjcar roamed in midfield to little effect, now Ryan Jack, Steven Davis and Joe Aribo make telling contributions.
On the flanks, Jordan Jones and Ojo deliver and eliminate opponents in a way that Harry Forrester or Michael O’Halloran never could.
And where once Joe Garner and Joe Dodoo laboured in front of goal, now Defoe and Morelos are
tag-teaming their way up the scoring charts.
In each department these days, Rangers are superior. They also have a squad depth that means a prolonged Europa League run may not be detrimental to their domestic ambitions.
Gerrard, the man tasked with stopping Celtic’s quest for nine straight titles, has by no means got everything right in his 14 months in charge.
But a superior strike rate in the transfer market to his predecessors and the full buy-in of his paymasters have helped shape a Rangers team reminiscent of those of the past.
For those supporters who jubilantly made their way home in the unseasonable rain on Sunday evening, there is now no need to argue why their side can deliver this title. Why not? — is proving a tougher one to answer.