16 hours ago
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Andrew Cavenagh has made a disconcerting habit of backing the wrong horses since spearheading the big American takeover of Rangers and, in public at least, continues to make worrying noises about carrying on down that road.
Even when sending sporting director Kevin Thelwell and CEO Patrick Stewart, a proper pair of plodders, off to the glue factory during the week, the Ibrox chairman took time to praise the squad of players head coach Danny Rohl now finds himself trying to get a tune out of.
‘We think our team is highly skilled and has upside,’ he ventured. ‘As I said in October, it needs to be rounded out a little bit more.
‘We didn’t expect to get from Point A to Point B in a single window, but we are very optimistic and we have been encouraged by the uptick in performance that has happened under Danny.’
Given what he said in October, it leads you to question how much of this Rangers team he is actually watching. Back then, when unveiling Rohl as the successor to the living, breathing catastrophe that was Russell Martin, he reported himself happy with the money that had been spent in the window.
That, of course, involved splurging £20million or so on Youssef Chermiti, Manny Fernandez, Thelo Aasgaard and Oliver Antman alone. Factor in loan deals for the likes of Nasser Djiga, Max Aarons and Mikey Moore and whatever was spent on luring Joe Rothwell from Bournemouth on a three-year deal and it’s hard to share the optimism.
Nico Raskin tries to inspire a bedraggled Rangers side but in truth there is too much deadwood
Chairman Andrew Cavenagh has spoken positively of the current squad but no one is fooled
Rangers manager Danny Rohl has an onerous task trying to get a tune out of his current crop
‘I think we’ve brought in a bunch of great players and, if they can play up to their potential, then we will see a much, much better performance,’ reported Cavenagh.
Total mince, of course. This Rangers squad is miles off it and that has surely been reflected in the assessments Rohl passed to the board recently. His traffic-light system of rating those in the dressing-room must have more red lights on show than the fruity back alleys just off Amsterdam’s Oudezijds Achterburgwal canal.
Maybe Cavenagh is just being politic. Many of these players are going to have to be shipped back out the door sooner rather than later and telling the truth about how bad they’ve been is hardly going to spark an auction for their services.
He was right in October in stating the squad needed more experience. He was right in stating it is too heavy on loan deals. At the back alone, Aarons, Djiga, Jayden Meghoma and the injured Derek Cornelius are all at the club on temporary arrangements, which, given how things have been going, maybe isn’t as bad as it seems.
When you also consider that 34-year-old James Tavernier is still having to play every week and John Souttar’s contract expires in the summer, you do wonder what kind of forward planning — if any — went into the defensive areas of the squad. It had better be going on now. You wouldn’t bank on any of those guys being around next term.
Fernandez has a long-term contract, of course. Amazingly. His £3m transfer from Peterborough was one of the more perplexing deals overseen by Thelwell. There was little in his background to justify such a fee and there’s been next to nothing on view since — other than the fact he can jump very high. That’s nice. Useful at times. It’s touching the ball with his feet that’s the problem and that tends to be required rather often in a sport, the name of which is formed by the conjoining of the words ‘foot’ and ‘ball’.
Nasser Djiga is a walking bombscare and was at it again in the disappointing draw with Braga
Djeidi Gassama has had his moments since joining from Sheffield Wednesday for £2.5m, but it has looked of late as though he is being slowly dragged down by the mediocrity around him. And there’s plenty of that.
Aasgaard is an enigma. There are flashes of ability. However, there is zero sign of consistency or even being able to leave a lasting impression over 90 minutes. Leaving a lasting impression on Anthony Ralston’s thigh in a semi-final loss to Celtic remains his most game-defining contribution.
The less said about Chermiti, signed for £8m from Everton, the better. To some eyes, he is already shaping up as the Tore Andre Flo for a new generation. The only difference is that Flo actually scored goals, albeit against the diddy teams more often than not.
In addition, Flo did not make hand signs to punters suggesting they’ve been mouthing off about him after seeing the Kilmarnock goalkeeper let a speculative effort from distance squirm through his gloves and go over the line. As of this moment, that is the 21-year-old centre-forward’s only goal in 14 appearances.
Bojan Miovski isn’t doing much better. So far, it’s looked like he’s sending his identical twin over from North Macedonia to pick up the wages. This can’t the same bloke who terrorised the league with Aberdeen, can it?
Rothwell, meanwhile, was drafted in to help implement Martin’s philosophy. If the philosophy was, indeed, committing harakiri at the back every week while doing nothing up front and getting stomped over in midfield, he did well. He now spends his life on the bench.
Belgian international Raskin is Rangers' only sellable asset but even he is toiling at the moment
It just goes on and on. Antman’s fee was £4m including add-ons. He started like a steam train against Viktoria Plzen, but watching him now is akin to staring at the cancelled 15.44 to Dingwall, stuck in the station because of leaves on the line.
In the controversial 2-1 home win over Livingston that played out around the decision to give Stewart and Thelwell the boot, it was painful watching Tavernier point and shout at Antman to tell him the spaces he should be moving into off the flank.
Indeed, those 90 minutes showed just how unsuited this squad is to achieving anything. Over and above everything else, there was just no hunger on show. No personality. It’s quicker stating who you’d keep rather naming the ones Rohl needs to get shot of.
Nico Raskin hasn’t been great this term, but he brings something to the mix. The fact he is the one sellable asset, as a result of being picked by Belgium, means he might have to be sold to raise funds, though.
Gassama has been fine. Jack Butland has had a decent season, but is he the long-term solution as keeper? As for Mohamed Diomande, the only medal he looks likely to win is one for services to Hide And Seek. There aren’t many you’d deem irreplaceable.
A lot of this is now on Cavenagh. There are no human fire shields any longer. He threw his weight behind those who built this squad at great cost — eventually having to admit he made a Horlicks of it — and still has to deal with allowing Thelwell to stay long enough to give his son a plum job as well as bringing many other old allies into the infrastructure.
Cavenagh has already bulleted Stewart, Martin and Thelwell but now some players must follow
Jettisoning them, as he surely must, will cost a few quid. Not as much, though, as getting the playing squad into shape to compete for trophies.
Cavenagh says he’s playing the long game. ‘Sustained winning and winning sustainably’ is how he describes the dream scenario.
Yeah, yeah. Well, you’re light years away from that, old fruit. Just like accepting behind-doors that the squad isn’t good enough, the Philadephia-based health tycoon is going to have to forget the sustainability stuff for now and get his hand ideep in his pocket to help repair the mess he helped make in the summer.
Otherwise, with Stewart and Martin and Thelwell all toast, it won’t be long until it’s his feet being put to the fire by a fanbase that has understandably had enough.
