Nils Koppen has his work cut out in January to sign the players that Rangers need to mount a serious and sustained title challenge.
Philippe Clement continues to have his position as manager questions and, until his squad starts to produce better performance, the clouds above Ibrox and doubts about his future will never clear.
What Rangers new technical director will be working on is a new centre-half to partner John Souttar with Robin Propper looking increasingly unlikely to stick around in a league that has caught him by surprise.
Scott McKenna was the obvious Rangers signing of the summer
Subbed for the fourth time domestically this season, Propper hasn’t been able to handle the physicality of the Scottish game.
The irony being that Rangers failed to sign a player who has proven that he can whilst showing that he also has the technical ability to play at a higher level too.
On a free transfer Scott McKenna seemed the perfect replacement for Filip Helander and the ageing Leon Balogun to partner Souttar.
Ben Davies left to join Birmingham City mainly due to the reasons Propper is being criticised now and yet he never had to be taken out the firing line to such an extreme level.
It didn’t even take hindsight to realise that McKenna would have been a shrewd signing given his performances in the Premier League and for Scotland.
That he kept Barcelona at bay on the same weekend Propper struggled so badly against St Johnstone only rubs salt into the wounds.
Rangers transfer plan should see McKenna mistake avoided in future
Koppen has confirmed that more Scottish signings will be made in the future in a recent interview:
“We have to be aggressive in the youth market to try to get the best young players in the country and keep investing in that. Because the strong core of Scottish players should come from your own academy. And sporadically, you buy somebody from other clubs, like with Connor Barron.
“It’s one of our objectives, to try and sign one player a season from another Scottish club if they’re there and the deal makes sense and it fits the plan,” claimed the technical director.
“There are so many circumstances with every transfer call you make. Does the money make sense, is the player arriving in a position you’re looking for, are you killing the value of another player in that position? You need to always consider the overall picture.”
On this occasion though, a signing that did make sense was made for one that now looks like a waste of money.
