Chris Sutton believes that Rangers will need to produce “the biggest turnaround in Scottish football history” if they want to be crowned Scottish Premier League champions next season.
Rangers returned to the top tier of Scottish football last season for the first time since the 2011-12 campaign but they seriously struggled to maintain a serious title challenge.
The Gers had to settle for a third-placed finish, nine points behind Aberdeen and a whopping 39 points adrift of league champions and bitter rivals Celtic.
Rangers were also humiliated in the Old Firm derbies last season, losing 5-1 both home and away to Celtic in the league.
Manager Pedro Caixinha does not want a repeat of the previous campaign and he has set his stall out already with eight new signings this summer.
Writing in his column for the Daily Record, Sutton believes that Rangers deserve credit for not standing still in the transfer market but still believes it will be extremely difficult to knock Celtic off the top spot.
However, Sutton also adds that he’s concerned that Celtic haven’t made any significant signings yet this summer.
“Celtic finished 39 points ahead of the Ibrox outfit last season and if Pedro wins the Premiership this time around it will go down as the biggest turnaround in Scottish football history,” he wrote.
“Rangers fans are right to be excited and will at least be consoled by the fact the forthcoming season cannot possibly be worse than the last when they were desperately poor for the size of budget committed.
“Of course, there was necessity in the need for Pedro to do his transfer business early in the summer, not least because he has had to overhaul an inadequate squad amid the looming deadline of his club’s Europa League qualifiers which begin next week.
“Rangers have not stood still but I’m slightly concerned at Celtic’s failure so far to move forward in the transfer market.”
The majority of the new signings are set to make their competitive debuts for the club next week as Rangers begin the new campaign with a Europa League qualifying match against Progres Niederkorn on Thursday evening at Ibrox.
Rangers face a trip to Motherwell on the opening day of the new SPL season in August.