Trusted Ibrox reporter confirms no January spending spree

Ibrox fans have been warned that there will be no January spending spree.

While the real word understands profit and loss as well as being placed on UEFA’s ‘watch list’ for Financial Sustainability the build up to Micky Beale’s appointment was accompanied by tales of rebuilds and war-chests.

Since he took the job on the former QPR boss has been downplaying expectations with tales about assessing the current squad and the classic line that the returns of Filip Helander, John Souttar and Kemar Roofe will be the equivalent of new signings.

New contracts for Leon King and Ianis Hagi have deflected attention away from the fact that next week Ryan Kent, Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Jack can sign pre-contract deals elsewhere.

Chris Jack is the reporter most trusted by the Ibrox board, in the Christmas Day edition of The Herald he gently breaks the news:

MICHAEL BEALE needs to have one eye on the dressing room and the other on the treatment room. Only then can he venture into the boardroom.

The Rangers boss is dealing with two very different squads right now and that predicament makes it almost impossible to properly plan for the short-term as he aims to deliver gradual change and sustained success at Ibrox.

The group that Beale works with on a daily basis is short on numbers and quality and a full and proper assessment of the squad may not be able to be completed until February. That is, of course, after the transfer window has come and gone and it leaves Rangers caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of their recruitment strategy.

The team as it stands requires improvement but the wider issue is about the value for money the Ibrox investors are seeing right now. Funds have been spent but form and fitness mean there is little return at present and that simply must change when the cheques are signed on Beale’s say so.

Questions remain over just how good many of these players are and can be. Ross Wilson, the sporting director, defended himself and his record at the Annual General Meeting earlier this month but his answers did not appear to win over the doubters within the support.

It is something of a cliche to state that returning players can be like new signings but Beale was entitled to make that point in recent days. Until the majority are available, the judgements on the team, and perhaps Beale as a boss, are somewhat skewed by the circumstances.

In their 2022 accounts The Tribute Act announced a transfer profit of £4.9m post June 30, that will have been wiped out by paying off one management team and compensating QPR for Beale.

Just over £10m was spent in the summer on Ridvan Yilmaz, Ben Davies and Rabbi Matondo with Tom Lawrence signing on a very lucrative deal as a free agent from Derby County.