The English Championship is a tough league, nobody’s really arguing with that, but that doesn’t suddenly make every player in it miles better than what’s needed to succeed at Rangers or in the Scottish Premiership. The gap gets exaggerated, and you can see why when the money involved down there is mentioned every five minutes, but in pure football terms it’s nowhere near as big as some make out.

Championship quality is not miles above Scotland

In terms of competitiveness, the Championship is frantic. There are loads of games, plenty of teams of a similar level, and every year looks wide open. But the actual standard of individual players is not "levels above" what we see up here.

We’ve watched plenty of players come up from the Championship after doing well down there and then struggle badly in the Premiership. At the same time, lads who were pretty average in Scotland have gone down south and done very well for themselves. You can rattle off examples like Mikey Johnston having a good spell, or Ross McCormack scoring freely when he went down there after starting in the Scottish game.

All of that backs up the idea that it’s not some huge step up in footballing ability. A good SPFL player can easily cope in the Championship, and a Championship player is not guaranteed to walk into our league and dominate. The big difference is often the pay packet, not the talent.

Money talks, but mentality matters more at Rangers

That’s where Rangers find ourselves at a disadvantage. Many players pick the Championship ahead of us for the simple reason that the money is far better, not because the football is more glamorous or the stage is bigger. If we could genuinely match the wages on offer down there, you’d see a lot more of those players choosing Ibrox, in my view.

And this is where the whole "they’ve never needed to win" argument comes in. For several Championship clubs, finishing mid-table is fine. Surviving is enough. That mindset is the total opposite of what it means to play for Rangers, where winning is an expectation, not a bonus.

Some of these players arrive from smaller clubs down south thinking they’ll stroll it up here. They underestimate the pressure, the scrutiny, the demand to win every single week. When that hits them, a few shrink and look for the comfort of going back to what they know, even if it’s a so-called bigger league with smaller crowds and less expectation.

Rangers is a level of its own

For Rangers, it’s not just about technical ability, it’s about having the mentality where pressure doesn’t scare you, it actually gets you going. You need boys who wake up excited by the demands, not hiding from them.

That’s why using the Championship as some automatic badge of quality is lazy. The real question is: can this player handle the unique pressure that comes with playing for Rangers? Because in terms of pure football, the levels are closer than some would admit, but the expectations at Ibrox are like nowhere else.

Written by Charlies Lad: 14 December 2025

Tags: opinion transfers