Rangers boss Steven Gerrard has said that only signings with “real quality” that can take his side to the “next level” will be targeted this summer.
Gerrard was busy in the transfer market last year ahead of his first campaign in charge of the Ibrox club, and is preparing to strengthen his team again as they look to close the gap to Celtic.
Speaking to Rangers TV, however, Gerrard said that Rangers would not be as active this time round as they were during last summer’s window, and stressed the importance of finding the right players to fit his squad.
“I don’t think it will be like last summer,” the manager said. “Obviously we felt we needed big changes in different areas and we wanted to freshen it up with a lot of newness, because we felt it was broken and fractured in certain areas as a club.
“As a feeling there was a lot of negativity around, so that was the reason we made a lot of changes there. We feel as though we have a decent squad here and a good team, but to get to the next level now we feel it’s about having quality.
“At the moment we can only strike for the frees that are maybe out there, for the pre-contracts which we’ve done. When the window opens we want to go and strike for the areas of the pitch where we feel we need real quality to take us to the next level.”
OPINION
This is a sensible approach from Gerrard. We’ve seen from signings such as centre-back Nikola Katic that the Gers boss needs to think more carefully this summer than he did last time round. While Katic was solid for the first half of the season, he was dropped altogether for a significant period of time as January loan signing Joe Worrall took his place at the centre of defence. And although Katic has recently come back into the fold, the point remains; that shrewd signings who will not fade need to be made. Sunday’s 2-0 win over Celtic should give Gerrard lots of hope though. It proved that he has a very good spine and shell in his team that he can build around, and if the manager can get signings who can fit the current mould, he’s onto a winner. On a lighter note, Gerrard might also want to think about signing players with a tendency to keep a better disciplinary record, too.