There’s a habit in our support of reaching for the big red button. Somebody has a bad afternoon, or we drop points, and suddenly it’s “only six players are good enough” and the rest should be punted. Truth is, that kind of talk ignores how football squads actually change year to year, and it ignores what we’ve already seen from this group when things click.

Natural wastage isn’t a crisis

What a lot of folk describe as a “mass clear-out” is often just natural wastage. Loans end. Some players hit the end of their contracts and move on. That happens at every club, every summer, whether you’re delighted with the season or not.

The key bit is timing. Loan deals usually run to the summer, and you can’t just assume they’ll be cancelled early. Same with moving on players who’ve got six months left on their deals. It’s not as simple as “get them out the door” if the wages are high and nobody’s keen to take that on. You’re either paying it up, or you’re stuck until the contract runs down.

There’s a team in there, even if it needs help

If Rangers have taken strong points from a recent run of league games, that doesn’t happen by accident. It doesn’t mean everything is perfect, and it doesn’t mean we can stand still either. But it does tell you there are players in the building who can contribute.

The sensible argument isn’t “keep everybody” or “bin everybody”. It’s: keep the ones who can handle it, improve the ones who might still come good, and add quality where we’re short. That’s how you build something that lasts, rather than chopping the legs off it every window.

2–4 additions beats a revolving door

My view is we’ll add two to four players in this window, with the right level of experience to lift the team. Not a scattergun approach, not signing bodies for the sake of it, but proper upgrades where it matters. That’s different from “double figures” unless you’re counting the lads who were always leaving anyway.

And if Danny Röhl is looking at minutes and deciding certain players aren’t seeing enough of the pitch, then aye, some fans will be disappointed. That’s part of it. But there’s a massive gap between trimming the squad and trying to replace a whole dressing room at once.

Because every total rebuild comes with a cost. New signings need time to settle, learn the shape, get up to the pace, and earn trust. You can easily lose a season just bedding in a brand-new group, and by the time you’ve fixed it, you’re rebuilding again. As a sporting model and as a business model, it’s hard to see how that’s the smart route for Rangers.

Written by Angus1812: 29 December 2025

Tags: transfers tactics