Sport
Near miss XI for Rangers; players Philippe Clement may have had
Philippe Clement reckons that he has been linked with 50 players since taking over as Rangers manager and he probably isn’t far away.
In fact, the Gers boss won’t be far off that number in left-backs alone with a new name almost every day being mentioned as a possible arrival at Ibrox.
It is never easy adding quality to a squad on a budget but Philippe Clement could have inherited an entirely different one if various transfers had gone in Rangers favour.
If only Philippe Clement had this Rangers squad available
In this “what if” XI, it would have been easy to add players like Michy Batshuayi, who was named as a target this month, but, realistically, we were never going to be able to afford him.
Everyone of these players had concrete links, had scouting confirmed or bids made.
Ignore the formation, these, I reckon are the best players who are now worth considerably more.
James Trafford
Eyed as a contender to replace Allan McGregor, Rangers probably thought that the young Man City academy keeper could be picked up for a bargain as he approached the end of his contract.
They were wrong as a £19m move to Burnley indicated.
Danilho Doekhi
It seemed like this one was just a matter of the deal being announced, however, despite openly admitting our interest, the big Dutch defender chose Union Berlin instead.
Clubs like Napoli have now been credited with being keen to sign the 25-year old.
Jarrad Branthwaite
Everton’s towering stopper had already impressed on loan at PSV Eindhoven before his breakthrough Premier League season this year where reports of a £75m price tag now fill the back pages.
Steven Gerrard could have signed him for £1m but chose George Edmundson instead.
Joseph Okumu
Like Doekhi, Okumu wouldn’t have broken the bank in terms of wages but is now in Ligue 1 and destined for a bigger club.
The Kenya international could have been the solution to the left-sided cenrte-half issue.
Dejan Ljubicic
There seemed to be a link with the Austrian international ever since we faced Rapid Vienna in the Europa League.
A Bosman move to the Bundesliga saw Rangers miss out and you could argue that we’ve never signed or targeted a similar number six since.
Eric Martel
For a little over £1m, Martel moved to the Bundesliga with Rangers entertaining a bid and, like Ljubicic, has found his level
Cole Palmer
Yes, it was only on loan, but what a player the former Man City kid and now main man at Chelsea has turned out to be.
As good an attacking midfielder as there is in England.
Lovro Majer
Moved to Wolfsburg from Rennes in the summer for over £20m, Gerrard dithered when we could have signed him for a similar fee to the ones paid for Kemar Roofe and Cedric Itten.
Denis Bouanga
Yes, our record with MLS players isn’t great, however, we were considering a move when he was playing in Ligue 1.
His ridiculous goal contribution record has seen an eight-figure price tag slapped on his head despite being 29-years old.
Andreas Skov Olsen
The ultimate, recent, one that got away.
Goals, assists, pace, finesse, all for less than we paid for Ryan Kent.
Buy cheap, buy twice. If only we had dug deep at the time for the troublesome right-wing position we wouldn’t be in our current mess.
Nikola Krstovic
He was available for less than Cyriel Dessers and Sam Lammers in the summer off the back of a 30-goal season.
Now linked with the giants of Serie A – he wasn’t a hard one to scout and we still managed to blow it.
This team is worth a fortune now, especially the front three.
It just goes to show that it isn’t how much Rangers spend that is important, it’s where it is spent that counts when looking to supply Philippe Clement with upgrades.
