Steven Gerrard this morning arrived at Auchenhowie to begin life at the training centre as Rangers Manager. I’m sure I was not the only supporter filled with excitement in seeing the pictures from Sky Sports news.
It’s been a while in waiting and although the gaffer has been in charge 13 days, this is his first time formally at the training ground as manager to stay.
He will spend the next few days preparing the intricate details for the players arriving back this Friday. As we previously spoke about, the club then fly out on the 17th to Andalucia for a 10 day training camp.
It is on this trip Rangers will have new Croatian centre back Nicola Katic & Connor Goldson (baring any hitches in completing that deal over the next day or so) The Rangers board have stepped up and backed the manager to the tune of £5m to secure both players.
The centre back position is absolutely crucial and unless you missed last season, it was absolutely necessary it was addressed. Both players standing at 6ft 4 you can see instantly we will be more commanding and physical than previous seasons.
A lot of those signings come from the excellent work of trio of Allen, Scoulding and Gerrard. In the case of Katic the club moved extremely quickly to tie up the deal and not a lot was mentioned on it anywhere. From the clips we have seen Katic, he is pacey and strong but he is relatively unknown to us.
Off course watching the ‘experts’ tell us he wasn’t signing was all rather amusing, even more so when Celt*c bloggers carried the story as well. When I started the blog I had intended to slap that kind of nonsense down, whether it was this or lies about admin etc.
The truth is it’s not even required, give it a hour and these idiots normally do it all by theirselves.
Connor Goldson is another big outlay at around £3m or slightly less depending on who you believe. I take great encouragement from the comments of the Brighton fans who seem genuinely gutted to see him leave.
So with hopefully Goldson joining Katic in the coming hours, they will sit in front of Allan McGregor and all of a sudden a strong spine is appearing. Scott Arfield and Ovie Ejaria will bulk up the midfield and there will almost certainly be more money spent on new arrivals.
So what else has been happening? A quick round up of recent rumours (most people will have heard tbf) has shown links to Jon Flannigan and Ryan Kent completely denied by the club. Both were rumoured to be extremely close but that seems to be another unfounded rumour. Jason Cummings looks likely to be staying at Forest as Rangers have seemingly ‘cooled’ their interest, whilst it’s dangerous to say ‘never’ it does look like we will be setting our target elsewhere to bring in striking options.
There is no further information on the previous background team but we are expecting the club to clarify that shortly.
The training ground will be part of the Hummel deal and that particular secret now widely known on social media. We can only hope that the newly named ‘Hummel training centre’ will provide another financial boost for the club when the official Hummel deal kicks in.
There is no further details on kit launch although whispers that we can’t announce anything formally until after July when the SD contract ends are backed by the clubs requests for patience. Another open secret being the club will have an orange kit this coming season, something we spoke about when the deal was first made, and expertly confirmed again by the lads on FF recently.
With lots if pictures appearing on social media, it is Ibrox that has also been seen to get lots of attention recently both inside and out. With the best part of £3m being spent on the roofs of the three stands and also much needed cosmetic attention. That includes lots of painting and fixing of small issues that had been left unattended by recent incumbents of the previous board room.
Heading out the door imminently are Michael O’Hallaron and Joe Dodoo. MOH heading to Australia, a story broke again by the lads on FF over a week ago, and not too many will be sorry to see him go. Joe Dodoo looks Blackpool bound on loan. Liam Kelly has left the club for a small fee to Livingston also. There is various other players negotiating deals away from the club and it would seem logical that these will start to break in the coming weeks.
A hat tip to the guys on the Rangers social media team, Andy Jess, Rab Boyle, Andy MacKinnon and all the guys have really stepped up their, already fantastic, game recently and we have saw some brilliant moments on social media. The official pictures of Katic yesterday, similar to Souness all those years ago, was a lovely subtle touch. It really is worth subscribing to the clubs official channel for as little as £5 a month
So as you can see it’s all very positive as the new manager arrives this morning. Big money is being spent on the squad and more players will come in. Ibrox is being looked after and positive things are happening all over the club.
It’s worth noting that this all flies in the faces of the obsessed who stalk our club at every turn, but watching them proved wrong at every turn is some what amusing.
Ignore the nonsense, the irrelevant and the noise
Lets Go!
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Four Lads Had A Dream 