Rangers sporting director Ross Wilson is a man under pressure and here we take a look at the ex-Southampton man’s record at Ibrox.
Whilst the Rangers sporting director’s job goes beyond recruitment, and simply looking at the players coming into the club doesn’t paint the whole picture, it’s still an interesting experiment.
Rangers managing director Stewart Robertson leapt to the defence of the Ibrox director at the most recent AGM and insisted the club’s progress behind the scenes under Wilson was monumental.
But when things aren’t going right on the pitch everyone at the club is under the microscope and with suggestions the squad has been mismanaged it’s the former Southampton man in the spotlight.
Only seven Ross Wilson signings a genuine success
Ross Wilson has signed 29 players since joining Rangers in October 2019, and by our count, only seven of them can be considered “success stories”.
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We have included Ianis Hagi, Calvin Bassey, Jon McLaughlin, Leon Balogun, Kemar Roofe, John Lundstram and Malik Tillman for a number of reasons.
Firstly, Ianis Hagi has shown enough to prove that he can be a top player for Rangers, injuries aside, whilst Calvin Bassey, Jon McLaughlin, Leon Balogun and Kemar Roofe were all important members of the 55-winning team.
Bassey in particular was sold for a fortune and whilst Jon McLaughlin might not be a future number one he’s been a damn good number two at times.
Leon Balogun was a real success story during his time at the club (when fit) whilst Kemar Roofe, albeit constantly struggling with injury, was a key player in 55 and in the run to the Europa League Final.
John Lundstram – who has quite simply not been good enough this season – makes the cut due to his Europa League exploits whilst Malik Tillman stands as the only genuine success story of this summer’s business.
Number could grow with several on the fence
There are also ten players, signed under the stewardship of Ross Wilson who are unproven at Rangers or who still have time to fall into either camp.
Summer signings John Souttar, Ridvan Yilmaz and Tom Lawrence have barely played due to injury, whilst Rabbi Matondo still has plenty of proving himself to do.
Whilst Antonio Colak enjoyed a blistering start to the season, Rangers fans remain unconvinced he is the man to lead the line going forward.
Then there are earlier signings such as Scott Wright and Fashion Sakala, who are often either heroes or villains, with both failing to consistently make their mark on the squad. Time is also running out for both.
The signs are certainly positive with new signings Nicolas Raskin and Todd Cantwell, but it’s too early to judge.
Ben Davies has begun to settle after struggling with fitness issues but the jury is still out when it comes to the big games, as evidenced by a weak showing v Celtic.
Ross Wilson wide of the mark with twelve Rangers signings
Then there are those players who, quite simply, failed to make the grade at Rangers and who have not contributed enough since coming into the club.
There was Florian Kamberi, signed before the Covid-19 lockdown, who did impress but failed to win a full-time contract with the club.
Covid signings such as Cedric Itten and Bongani Zungu were shipped out almost as soon as they came in, although the former did score some important goals in the hunt for 55.
Bournemouth pair Jack Simpson and Nmandi Ofoborh were a disaster, with Simpson struggling at Ibrox and Ofoborh being diagnosed with a heart condition moments after joining the team.
Juninho Bacuna is a name which few Rangers fans remember fondly, whilst the signings of James Sands, Amad Diallo, Mateusz Zukowski and Aaron Ramsey flopped last January.
James Sands is the only of the four still at the club, and even then we suspect that won’t be beyond the summer.
This highlights that Rangers recruitment is getting it wrong more often than not and let’s hope that those names signed this season eventually wind up in the first category and not the last.
Meanwhile, could Dimitrios Kourbelis be amongst the next names coming into Rangers?