Ibrox side Glasgow Rangers kick off the season in two weeks, but are they ready for it?
Steven Thompson has told The Glasgow Evening Times he is worried that Rangers’ hectic recruitment this summer could hinder his former club early in the Scottish Premiership.
Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha has signed nine new players for the Gers this summer and seven of those have never kicked a football in Scotland before, Ryan Jack and Graham Dorrans being the only exceptions.
Worryingly, the new boys have not had many chances to gel as a team after the Ibrox outfit were knocked out of the Europa League at the first hurdle by Progres Niederkorn.
Caixinha’s troops have only two matches left before their Premiership opener with Motherwell on August 6 – a friendly with Marseille today and an exhibition clash with Sheffield Wednesday next Sunday.
And Thompson, who spent three years at Rangers, is concerned that his former side could suffer from rustiness early on in their domestic campaign.
“Caixinha has had the same amount of times to get every one of his players ready for this game,” he told The GET. “He’s had a big, big turnaround of players. The only worry for me is can you get that continuity quickly?
“Quite often when you bring in this amount of players from different cultures with varying styles of football, it may take a wee while for the players to adjust to Scottish football.
“The one thing for Caixinha he needs to hit the ground running given what happened in the Europa League. There’s a bit a pressure on Caxinha and the players to get off to a good start but it can be difficult with such a change of players to get that continuity quickly.”
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