The now-departed manager wanted to sign young, talented players with a re-sale value in order to help Rangers bring in funds.
It’s not easy trying to defend Mark Warburton’s transfer policy at Rangers. Not when Joey Barton’s contract was terminated after a matter of weeks, via a betting ban and a training ground bust-up. Not when Philippe Senderos’ only meaningful contribution was a brainless red card against Celtic. Not when Joe Garner, the summer’s most expensive addition, is eleven games without a goal.
However, if there is one defence to excuse Warburton for allowing a 27 point chasm to open up between Rangers and Celtic, it’s that he was hardly given the funds required to challenge sufficiently upon their top flight return.
Why else would the 54-year-old spend the summer targeting out-of-contract, over-the-hill veterans. Or, for that matter, young, unproven players with the capacity to improve.
Although Jordan Rossiter and Joe Dodoo, picked up from Liverpool and Leicester after their deals ran down, are yet to make an impact at Ibrox, they both represented Warburton’s long-term plan. Essentially, to buy low and sell high; develop young players and turn them into a profit a la Andre Gray at Brentford.
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And, judging by links with a number of teen talents, from Motherwell winger Chris Cadden, Aston Villa striker Rushian Hepburn-Murphy (below) and 17-year-old Livingston starlet Matthew Knox, coupled with his desire to keep homegrown wonderkid Billy Gilmour in Glasgow, Warburton was attempting to compensate for the lack of funds by generating his own.
As reported by the Birmingham Mail, he admitted in December that Rangers should use Celtic’s signing of Moussa Dembele for nothing more than a compensation fee as an example of how to operate on a testing budget. Two words; ‘re-sale value’.
Mark Warburton says Rangers need to follow Celtic’s lead; defends transfer loophole
The fans may have been uninspired by Warburton’s signings but it was not for the lack of trying. In fact, buying low and selling high is the only way Rangers can progress.
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