Rangers were humiliated by a far superior Celtic side in their last two outings.

Those losses made sure that the Gers side were ending the season without a trophy and the’re now thirty-six points behind the Scottish Premiership champions. Aberdeen also seem set to beat them to second place.

As with the case with any poor performing Old Firm side, a press and social media inquest has already begun.

People have been quick to state that the squad needs to be overhauled and that millions need to be spent in getting better personnel in. Some have suggested that Rangers will need to spend around £50m to catch Celtic next season.

I believe a lot of these pundits and fans need a bit of a reality check.

While I agree that this Gers squad needs a lot of changes and it needs investment, knowing that and dealing with it are two different things.

The current board at Ibrox have failed to bring in any major investment in the last two and a bit years. I don’t see that changing in the next month or so. That means you can’t bin off all the deadwood and start again with buy big money replacements this summer.

Obviously Clint Hill and Phillippe Senderos will depart as their contracts expire.

After that who knows? It seems most of the playing squad are on long term deals and it will be hard to get any suitors to buy underperforming players.

They might be able to offload Rob Kiernan to an English side, as long as they don’t realise that the centre-back isn’t actually good at defending. It might be possible to sell on James Tavernier and Martyn Waghorn if you show clubs their stats rather than footage of them playing.

It might also be the right time to cash in on Barrie McKay as his contract’s running down and it looks unlikely that he’ll sign a new one. The Scottish international is a player that they might get a few million for and he hasn’t really figured in Pedro Caixinha’s recent first team selections.

So why do I think it will only take three new faces to close the gap between the two Old Firm sides?

Well firstly I don’t think it will close it down dramatically. People at Ibrox need to set more realistic goals. This season has been a waste, morale around the club has taken a real battering. But I think the bar was set far too high by previous boss Mark Warburton and chairman Dave King, who said they expected to challenge for the title this year. The objective for this term should’ve been to challenge for a cup and go all out for second place.

Those two goals (second place and a cup) should be the objectives for next season, along with closing the gap with Celtic to around fifteen points and making the derby games more competitive.

The weight of expectation was too much for the squad and the club didn’t invest enough to make such bold predictions last summer. They were living off a semi-final win over Celtic and that win only made Celtic stronger in the longterm as they brought in Brendan Rodgers and better players.

Now as I’ve already said, I don’t think the money is there for Rangers to completely reinvent themselves this upcoming off-season. That means they need to be smarter in the transfer market.

The three positions I’d add to will benefit the spine of the team.

I’d be on the lookout for a strong commanding centre-back, preferably with experience. A defender who will put their body in front of every shot and who will attack every ball in the air and win most of those battles. A big guy that intimidates opponents, who basically kicks some asses and takes names. Who would compliment Danny Wilson, who is lacking that in his game.

You also need a midfield destroyer who will marshall just in front of the defence. Someone who can break up play and give it to those you can start attacks. A man that will get into the faces of opponents and just add bite to this current squad. A ball winner who will go into every challenge possible.

Rangers under Warburton seemed content on just bringing in technically sound players without realising that the team needed more heart, height and nastiness.

Against Celtic on Saturday, in the second half, the Hoops players were having fun keeping the ball as the travelling support screamed ‘Ole!’. Can you imagine a Barry Ferguson or an Ian Ferguson or a Jorg Albertz or a Dado Pro accepting that? No they’d have at least put someone on their arse for that. That’s what this Gers side needs. They need more battling qualities and a stronger mentality.

They also need a goalscorer, who can get at least twenty league strikes a season.

Kenny Miller has been fantastic this season but he’s no longer of an age that you can expect him to be your number one striker. I don’t think Waghorn has the qualities needed, he seems to lose all confidence when one-on-one with the goalkeeper especially in the big games. Joe Dodoo isn’t ready to lead the line week in and week out, while Joe Garner is more of a poor man’s Mark Hateley than a poor man’s Ally McCoist.

Now the problem is that fine goalscorers usually cost big bucks but that being said Moussa Dembele cost under a million, while Leigh Griffths only cost Celtic £1m. So you can find these players if you look around.

Rangers themselves picked up a bargain in Kris Boyd back in 2006.

Maybe just maybe they could do the same with Ross County’s Liam Boyce. Boyce has banged in an impressive forty-five goals in ninety-seven Scottish Premiership appearances. The Northern Irish international has twenty league goals to his name this term and that’s more than Dembele and just one behind top-scorer Scott Sinclair.

The Gers hierarchy also need to get to grips with the scouting team (or lack of) at the club. They’ve previously stated that bringing in a director of football was a priority but that no longer seems to be the case. They need a full functioning scouting network to be able to spot talent at a decent price throughout the world, especially in untapped markets if possible. Until they sort that out, then Caixinha will be working with an arm tied behind his back!

For me, Rangers need to get the spine of the team right this summer and forget an overhaul if the cash isn’t available. Then they should work towards achievable goals and then and only then will they have the foundations right to once again challenge Celtic, but that won’t be next season in my opinion.

Posted on May 2nd, 2017 by scott
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