Actions speak louder than words, and we must see the player trading model addressed properly in the case of Rangers chairman John Bennett.
Not every player will be bought or signed with the intention of selling them later, but value for money must be a consideration when assembling a squad.
Rangers didn’t get that in the summer, and one recent transfer story shows why John Bennett and the board need to reconsider.
Rangers require John Bennett to back up his words with action.
Although modern-day recruitment is a team sport, the final decision is still made by the manager.
That is, when there isn’t a sporting director in place, which Bennett recently addressed.
During the summer, Michael Beale couldn’t stop telling us how long he’d been watching certain players, with Kieran Dowell, Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers, and Dujon Sterling in particular appearing to be long-term targets.
This implied that it was the manager’s personal shopping list rather than a group effort.
Worryingly, the issues that fans on social media identified with the players have all come to pass.
Rangers’ player identification and scouting are being modernized, and John Bennett is aware that we must do better.
Rangers should start shopping locally, according to the latest rumour.
Another area of concern is homegrown players, and with the Gazzetta dello Sport reporting that Juventus are interested in signing Lewis Ferguson for a fee in the region of £17.5m, you have to wonder why Rangers didn’t sign someone who we could all see was on the rise.
Whether the manager wants them or not, they will need to be told that Scottish players must be included in his plans for obvious UEFA quota reasons.
Finding the good ones and signing them before they go to places like Serie A and the Premier League is the difficult part.
Rangers and John Bennet must solve this problem.
