Rangers Progress Report - Season to Date

The appointment of Russell Martin in the summer was one that was met with caution by the Rangers support.

However, within the heart of a beaten fan base was some hope and optimism that the appointment would work. After a poor start to the season and a 9-1 aggregate defeat by Club Brugge, the team, fans, manager and board were at war with each other.

Poor summer recruitment led by Kevin Thelwell and Dan Purdy, who shopped for the majority of signings in England from a “safety” aspect in their eyes trying to provide a stable footing with British based signings did nothing. What followed was a backfire with a rage from a fan base who were full of hope and optimism at the start of the season following the takeover from Andrew Cavenagh and the 49ers.

I spoke to 49ers based journalist Matt Maiocco in the summer who assured the fan base that Paraag Marathe was a safe pair of hands and would ensure traditions were maintained at the club during any change that may occur. Some of the club traditions haven’t been upheld evidently as Martin strutted around in his own attire, blaming everyone else bar himself for the bad start to the season. Even new Rangers boss Danny Rohl was not unveiled in the blue room. It’s small changes like this that fans will begin to notice along with the club not winning on the part at the time.

Kevin Thelwell - where do I start? He splashed out 8 million British pounds on Youssef Chermiti after allowing Hamza Igamane to leave to Lille for 10.5 million after it was revealed he had a release clause in his contract. The signing of Chermiti has been nothing short of awful so far, not laying any blame at the players door here but Rangers need to quickly realise the expectation that will be put on a signing at such a big outlet, he was signed having not scored a goal in 2 years. The man responsible for rubber stamping the signing is Mr. Thelwell, spending the Hamza Igamane money on what evidently seems to be a limited player. Then there’s his son, who was given a job on behalf of his old da’ if we were paranoid we could start to think the club is being infected from the inside. Luckily though as ever the fans are on it to protect the club from any such situation occurring.

I’m not going to write much about Patrick Stewart as we all know the pressure he's under currently, the signings of all his ex-Man U pals speak volumes for his ambition to move the club forward into a new era. So much for the transparency he promised us when he came into the football club.

So all of this happens and then there’s the appointment of Danny Rohl as manager, I firmly believe Rangers have come across the next manager to win us the league and lead us to 56. He’s come in and done some incredible off the ball work with the team and has shown he can ‘win dirty’ in the 1-0 away to Hibs in what was only his second league game. Also the most recent 3-0 win away to Dundee has shown this team can treat this league as it should be, the most impressive thing I’ve found under Rohl is his pragmatism. If something isn’t working he changes it so it does, there’s no such thing as sticking to principles etc. The Rangers manager has had the team press, go direct, play it on the deck and all so we can get 3 points which is the minimal expectation at a club like Rangers.

What does the future hold? Short to medium term all we have to do is win games of football until January, then hopefully we can get some players out and some good recruitment done. The signing of a number 6 and a striker is very important for the development of the squad, An older head at the back in Zoltan Gogic would be welcomed by the Rangers support, bringing some much needed fight and desire into the backline along with much needed leadership. If we can do this and stay on Celtics coat tails then we can still have a challenge for the league title, Hearts will do what they do and we ultimately can’t stop the great job that Derek Mcinnes has done at the Jambos. But ultimately Hearts will wobble and we need to be ready to close the gap at any opportunity.