Gio eyes January influx at Ibrox

RANGERS manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst admits he may require significant reinforcements in the January transfer window.

Through the expiry of existing contracts and loan deals, the Ibrox boss faces an exodus of up to ten players next summer but acknowledges that he may also have to do extensive business in the mid-season market.

His squad already compromised by a long injury list, the Ibrox boss hopes the forthcoming break for the World Cup will allow some of his absentees to return for the Premiership resumption in mid-December.

Defensively, in particular, his squad has been damaged by injuries to Connor

Goldson, Filip Helander, John Souttar and Ridvan Yilmaz.

Acknowledging how pivotal the January window was in helping Celtic overturn a six-point deficit last season, he does not wish to leave his squad short as they look to maintain a title challenge.

He said: ‘Of course you always want to add players in January if possible and if

needed. We still have a lot of players out with injuries, so we have to look at which players are coming back.

‘In every window, you firstly don’t want to lose players. It’s like the beginning and the end is important because you want to finish the end of the window more strongly than when you went in.

‘That means you have to be prepared for maybe players going out or adding players to be stronger as a squad.’

Asked how many he may wish to add this time, he admitted: ‘I don’t know at the moment. We still have two months to prepare.

‘When we come (back) in the second part of December, we will know which players we will have back. Then we can decide and pinpoint positions we have to strengthen.

‘We already had some injuries before the season started, with Ianis (Hagi), Helander and Souttar.

‘In recent months, we also have (Tom) Lawrence, Goldson and now Ben Davies with some injuries.

‘It’s football. If you look around just before the World Cup, the schedule is so demanding and dense, you see so many players getting injured.

‘It’s not good for us as club coaches and not good for the World Cup when you miss a lot of players.’

Last season’s winter window saw Rangers do significant business. Aaron Ramsey was the most high-profile arrival on loan from Juventus, while Amad Diallo also made a temporary move from Manchester United.

James Sands came in from New York City on an 18-month deal, while Mateusz Zukowski moved to Ibrox on a four-year deal from Lechia Gdansk before being loaned out to Lech Poznan in the summer.

Celtic, meanwhile, added Matt O’Riley and the Japanese trio of Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Yosuke Ideguchi. Of those four, only Ideguchi has not played regularly.

‘Aaron was very positive in the games he played and so was his influence in the locker room because of his experience,’ said Van Bronckhorst. ‘In the end, he had injuries.

‘Diallo didn’t have the impact we wanted him to have. When you sign the players, you sign them to have a positive impact and then just have to wait to see if that’s the case.’

More immediately, Van Bronckhorst has set his side the target of taking nine points from the three Premiership games before the World Cup, starting with today’s trip to face St Johnstone in Perth.

Tuesday’s 3-1 defeat to Ajax left Rangers not only pointless at the bottom of Group A but also with the worst ever record of any Champions League group participant.

The former Feyenoord boss (right) admits there is a psychological toll to losing but has been encouraged by his players’ capacity to respond. He said: ‘To bounce back after a defeat isn’t the easiest because if you win, everything is positive and you feel that physically. When you lose, it’s hard but when we’ve had negative results in Europe, we have bounced back the next week in the league.

‘This time, we have to do the same. It’s the last week before the break and we have to get nine points. ‘Two years ago, the players here were champions, so they have shown they can win trophies.’

Van Bronckhorst insists his experience of taking Feyenoord to a title when faced with the richer resources of Ajax and PSV Eindhoven give him confidence that the gap to Celtic — now at seven points with a game in hand — can be bridged.

‘In my time at Feyenoord, a big part of my squad hadn’t won any major trophies in their career,’ he added. ‘In 2016, we won the cup. It was positive for the players to get the experience of lifting a trophy and the year after we were champions.

‘We had a good, balanced team with youth and experience. We didn’t have any big injuries that season, so that always helps. ‘That hasn’t been the case in the first few months here, so we have to adapt our line-ups.

‘We have only played 12 games. There is a lot of the competition to be played and, of course, it is still possible to be champions of Scotland.’