Rangers new-look young squad has started to take shape with players like Jefte and Connor Barron making an immediate impression.
Philippe Clement spoke about using the academy more and of signing homegrown players, however, he is one Scottish player down in his squad since taking over the Ibrox hotseat.
It is an issue that must be addressed as the flow of promising Scots leaving the SPFL continues to accelerate.
- READ MORE: Rangers Net Transfer Spend Summer 2024
Lennon Miller “ready” to be a Rangers player
Players no longer see Rangers as the automatic next step in their careers, but the manager can now point to Barron as an example of being more than happy to play Scots – if they are good enough.
One player who is, according to Barry Ferguson, is Lennon Miller, a player linked to Rangers in the summer.
Motherwell would want a club record fee to surpass the £3m that Celtic paid for David Turnbull for the talented teen but Ferguson thinks he could be a shrewd acquistion, speaking on The Go Radio Football Show he said:
“I do think there are players who are certainly good enough.
“Talking from a Rangers point of view, Derek (a fan phoning into the show) mentions a young guy that we’ve spoken about on a number of occasions, young Lennon Miller.
“I think he’s ready. The boy’s ready to go and play, there’s no doubt about it and if I’m Rangers, I’m all over the top of that.”
Rangers would have to make room to sign Miller
Miller and Bailey Rice both came through the same age-group teams at Motherwell.
The former is on 50 senior appearances whilst Rice has only been seen in Light Blue on a few occasions.
The biggest reasons for this are depth and expectation.
One of the bug bears for Rice and his lack of game time, is the question of whether or not he would actually be any worse than the senior players in front of him.
Why not give him a chance?
Miller got his and grabbed it with both hands.
The Scotland Under-21 international isn’t a number six, he also isn’t a number 10 which means that he would be in direct competition with Mohamed Diomande, should Rangers want to sign him.
Put simply, Miller wouldn’t play anywhere near as often for Rangers.
Unless, Rangers received an offer for Diomande that was more than the £4.3m that was paid.
Clement has tipped the Ivory Coast international for big things and, like Celtic with Matt O’Riley and Arne Engels, the one in, one out policy should have Miller on Rangers list of names to potentially replace Diomande.
Until Rangers get players like Jose Cifuentes and Kieran Dowell off the books permanently though, there simply isn’t the space to bring Miller in.
Again, a problem that Clement inherited.
