Rangers are preparing to pull the trigger early on summer transfer activity, wary of the World Cup bottleneck that could impact their plans.
The club chairman, Andrew Cavanagh, made the comments at the press gathering on Sunday, with more information released today.
With Danny Rohl confirmed to be the man in the hotseat for the upcoming season, the club are now pushing on with plans to buy and sell players ahead of the new campaign.
The Rangers squad will return for pre-season training at the end of June.
Rangers transfers to be influenced by the World Cup
A lot will happen over the next five weeks, but by the time Rohl meets his squad again, there is an expectation that new faces will be on the way.
There was a similar feeling last time out under Russell Martin and the supposed rebuild that got underway last summer.
That turned out to be a terrible false dawn and now we are back to square one.
The need to get new faces in early has been made more urgent with the onset of the World Cup.
By then, much of the transfer market movement will be out of the club’s hands, as indicated by the chairman.
Can’t sit on our hands during the summer
Andrew Cavanagh added that the transfer budget will not be impacted by missing out on potential Champions League revenue.
“The window is long, probably too long in general,” said the Rangers chief.
“And the World Cup will absolutely complicate both the window and our squad.
“We’ll have players not playing because of the World Cup and when they come back, they need to get 30 days rest, something like that.
“The World Cup will absolutely complicate something that is already complicated, but we need to be ready and to move early. We cannot sit on our hands during the World Cup and go ‘we are going to take a break from recruitment’.
“It has to be something that we work on all summer, but you can’t force the market. Some things won’t happen until late because the market gets bottlenecks. You saw that in the January window with strikers that impacted us.
“Until one player moves, there are four or five players after that. And that could happen this summer, and the World Cup could further complicate that.”
Readrangers.com analysis – Graeme Hanna
Rohl or not, Rangers’ ability to go the distance next season will be determined by the quality of players available.
That means having the technical ability to create and score enough chances when it matters, as well as keeping them out at the other end.
Crucially, it also means having players who can get the job done.
Leaders. Senior players. Experience. Assurance. Reliability.
All of the above qualities are required, given how conspicuous they were by their absence as Rangers title charge disintegrated at the worst possible juncture.
That can’t happen again.
Danny Rohl knows the pressure is on, and come next season, Rangers will need to set the pace and make progress.
To do that, the Rangers transfers in the coming weeks will need to be a success.
Easier said than done, but that’s the reality.
