Rangers exodus set to continue after Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos exits as Michael Beale transfer plan moves with pace – Chris Jack
The five first-team departures already announced by Rangers “will not be the last ones of the summer”, with Michael set for a trimmed-down squad next season despite plenty of new arrivals, says Chris Jack.
The Gers are expected to move quickly and deliberately throughout the transfer window, as they have already, but with further exits considered certain the playing staff should be “younger and hungrier” at the end.
Veteran stalwarts Ryan Kent, Allan McGregor, Alfredo Morelos, Scott Arfield and Filip Helander were all confirmed as going at the expiry of their contracts the before the 2-2 draw with Hearts in the last game at Ibrox this season on 24 May.
According to Jack in the Glasgow Times: “Rangers will continue to move at pace but with a plan. The exits of Ibrox stalwarts like Allan McGregor, Scott Arfield, Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos will not be the last ones of the summer and the squad will be younger and hungrier, trimmed down in number but bolstered in terms of quality, by the time that Beale is finished with it.”
Overhaul
The surgery on the squad was always going to be extensive, and although Ryan Jack got a year’s extension and the injured Steven Davis received an unlikely path back to the first team, the Light Blues have already seen a major chunk of their recent history leave.
Three new arrivals have already been announced in their place in the form of Kieran Dowell, Dujon Sterling and Jack Butland, with Jose Cifuentes widely expected join them imminently.
That has already lowered the age of the squad, with even 30-year-old Butland over a decade younger than the man he replaces in 41-year-old McGregor.
Shifting people for the sake of it just to bring in a new signing that isn’t going to noticeably lift the standards would be a waste of time, but Beale certainly looks to have a clear vision of what he is trying to do at Ibrox so if there are veterans that he expects to be peripheral to his plans they appear to be in danger of going.
The likes of Glen Kamara and possibly Antonio Colak spring to mind, while the jury remains out on some of last summer’s transfer business.
It seems certain already that the squad that starts next term will look a lot different than the one that finished the previous one, but crucially it will need to be better for all the effort to have been worthwhile.
In other Rangers news, one Ibrox figure is at the centre of a warning issued by one BBC pundit over managerial talks.