Talking shop
Gers’ recruitment is suddenly going into overdrive but keeping Morelos or Kent would turn a good transfer window into a fantastic one
OFTEN the trickiest part of negotiating a sane path through any transfer window is resisting the temptation to jump to conclusions.
It wasn’t much more than a week ago after all that some Rangers fans were becoming all angsty over their club’s apparent lack of activity in the early days of the market.
And yet here we all are, in the second week of July, watching Giovanni van Bronckhorst suddenly throw the kitchen sink at what is his first proper recruitment drive as the boss at Ibrox.
The imaginative, cut-price captures of Antonio Colak and Tom Lawrence have lit a fire under the Dutchman’s summer and now it seems likely that van Bronckhorst and director of football Ross Wilson are only just getting started.
If French playmaker Angelo Fulgini and Welsh wing man Rabbi Matondo also arrive at Auchenhowie over the course of the next few days then the Dutchman – and his head of hiring and firing – will have significantly strengthened the club’s attacking armoury ahead of the new campaign.
The addition to the scouting team of former Celtic star finder John Park also seems like a particularly shrewd piece of business, given that the vastly experienced 64-year-old comes with an established network of contacts all across this continent and beyond.
Park’s attention to detail is what makes him such a highlyrespected operator.
He’ll have walked in already weighed down with extensive dossiers on a pre-prepared list of targets and his expertise could make him an invaluable addition to Wilson’s department.
All of this points to an ambitious and creative approach to assisting van Bronckhorst and getting him properly tooled up for what is shaping up as a compelling, hugely intriguing head-to-head with Ange Postecoglou.
The big Aussie has got off to a flyer with his own summer business, and the fact that his side scored three and conceded the same number against Rapid Vienna on Saturday is indicative of what Celtic can expect from his team again next season.
Postecoglou probably should give some serious consideration to adding a healthy dollop of pragmatism to the mix when he takes his team on tour in the Champions League. But he almost certainly will not.
If these last 12 introductory months have taught us anything then it’s surely that he’ll be going hell for leather again as soon as the ball comes back out of the cupboard, so the prospect of him coming up against a new-look, heavily armed Rangers attack is enough to make the mouth water.
But let’s not jump to conclusions because, for as long as this current window remains open, Rangers will remain in a state of considerable flux and perhaps even a hostage to fate.
This time last week Record Sport revealed how Southampton were about to throw a major spanner into the works by bidding for Joe Aribo. By Saturday night the Nigerian international was on the south coast parading around in a red and white shirt.
The money raised from his sale will help Wilson fund van Bronchorst’s spending spree.
But huge question marks remain hanging over the immediate futures of two more key men in Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos.
Last season, van Bronckhorst relied heavily on all three of these players and, as a matter of fact, more often than not they would make up his entire attack for the biggest games of the campaign both in Europe and domestically.
If the manager is now facing up to the prospect of having to replace them all in one fell swoop, then it’s no wonder he’s concentrating his focus on forward thinking players at this stage of the window.
Yes, Colak is an exciting addition, having stood out like a sore thumb when Malmo sank Steven Gerrard’s Champions League ambitions a year or so ago.
The Croat’s speed of thought and intelligent movement might still be giving Connor Goldson nightmares 12 months on now that they are back together again on the same training field.
And Welsh international Lawrence will undoubtedly help fill the creative void left by Aribo’s sale – having been the driving force behind Derby County’s logic-defying bid to stave off relegation last season, despite being hamstrung by a 21-point deduction.
But there is still much more work to be done and big decisions to be made if van Bronckhorst is to come out of this summer in better shape than when he went into it off the back of a Europa League Final and a Scottish Cup win.
With Aaron Ramsey and Amad Diallo now history, GVB was already two attackers down before Aribo packed his bags for the Premier League. Should Kent and Morelos both have to be sold off before their market value drops, then van Bronckhorst will be in desperate need of further reinforcements.
Fulgini’s craft and trickery coupled with Matondo’s scorching pace – the youngster was twice clocked at over 22 miles per hour playing for Schalke in last season’s Bundesliga – would represent a decent start.
Of course, van Bronckhorst also has attacking options already in the likes of Scott Wright, and the emerging Alex Lowry, plus Kemar Roofe and Ianis Hagi when fit. But the fact remains that Kent and Morelos would still walk into his strongest side and the thought of losing them will be disturbing the manager’s sleep. Keeping both of them seems less and less likely with each day that passes.
If Rangers can persuade at least one of these key men to hang around for the ride then what is shaping up to be a satisfactory transfer window could become a splendid one. But that’s a conclusion for
another day.
There is still much more work to be done and big decisions to be made by gaffer Gio