‘Strange’ Lawrence Shankland and Lewis Ferguson to Rangers claims issued live on air
Lawrence Shankland would have won Rangers the league by now if they had signed him, claims Ally McCoist.
Rangers were long linked to signing Shankland as his Hearts contract ran down over recent seasons, but no move ever came about despite the Light Blues continually searching for the answer up front.
The Scotland international eventually signed a new deal at Tynecastle at the end of a down season in the summer, and the Jambos have been rewarded with a bounce-back and eight league goals so far as they sit top of the table.
Rangers meanwhile spent up to £10 million on Everton’s Youssef Chermiti as part of what is turning out to be a disastrous transfer window under the already-sacked Russell Martin, with the Portuguese scoring just once in all competitions.
Ex-Aberdeen star Bojan Miovski arrived on a comparatively low-value deal and is starting to prove his worth with five goals so far, including two in Rangers’ 3-0 win at Kilmarnock at the weekend, and an excellent opener as the Light Blues lost at Ferencvaros on Thursday.
Ally McCoist bemoans lack of Shankland deal for Rangers
But speaking live on TNT Sports during the Europa League match coverage commentator Jamie Lyall raised the fact that the Gers have largely foregone stars of the Scottish Premiership, suggesting Shankland and the like were who former caretaker boss Barry Ferguson would have wanted in the summer.
With Miovski starting to come good McCoist wholeheartedly agreed with the Shankland point, while highlighting Ferguson’s nephew and Bologna captain Lewis as another he believes should have been brought (back) in at Ibrox.
The Gers record scorer replied: “I totally agree with you. Lewis Ferguson would be another one… Yeah of course, absolutely. There’s always been great home talent growing there and Rangers have always utilised it, as have Celtic to be fair.
“I’ll take it a step further, Jamie. I think if you go and get Lawrence Shankland a year-and-a-half, two years ago, you win the league. There you are. It’s only my opinion, I might be wrong.”
Asked if it frustrates him all the more when a big fee on Chermiti hasn’t worked he added: “Oh absolutely, no there’s no getting away from that, the money they’ve spent at this stage you’d have to say is certainly not money well spent. It’s less of a gamble on somebody like Lawrence Shankland, who can score in the division, has proved he can score in the division, proven goalscorer, so it’s a strange one.”
Rangers too clever for their own good in transfer window
The list of failures by the Ibrox recruitment department in recent years is too long to properly do justice as the club have repeatedly brought in unsuitable signings while letting young talent fester and depart, with the likes of Ross Wilson, Nils Koppen and Kevin Thelwell all becoming targets for fan fury.
Andrew Cavenagh and the 49ers‘ takeover should have helped address those problems as it eased the need to refit an entire squad on a tight budget, having needed to do so repeatedly since a manager is sacked at least once a season these days.
Instead it has seemingly just increased the amount of money that is wasted by the Light Blues, with Chermiti currently the headline miss of a big summer spend.
Miovski might help to make the previous window look a bit better over time, but his progress might now have been stalled by injury in Hungary.
Shankland looked to be there for the taking as the Rangers supporter rejected numerous contract offers from Hearts, while Ferguson was of course once inside the set-up as a youngster.
The latter has probably long been out of reach since leaving Aberdeen for Bologna, but the Shankland ship has only just sailed.
Philippe Clement seemed to need him but never pulled the trigger, all while Cyriel Dessers was regularly the target for criticism at Ibrox.
Rangers fans didn’t know how good they had it with the Nigerian, who missed chances but also scored 52 times for the club, a total that Chermiti is going to need to improve immeasurably to ever threaten when Shankland would have been cheaper and likely more of a wise bet.
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