When Rangers FC lost Antonio Colak, Fashion Sakala and Alfredo Morales at the end of the 2022/23 season, the club needed to replace the combined total of 32 league goals the trio scored for the upcoming season. Additionally, the departure of winger Ryan Kent and midfielder Glen Kamara meant valuable supply lines for future goals would also be lacking.
The current Scottish Premiership odds to win the title make it a two-horse race, which is unlikely to change even with the replacements for these much-missed players. Celtic, at 2/9, is the overwhelming favourite, with Rangers finding prices of 10/3 to be in front come May next year. Hibernian, at 1000/1 odds with most bookies in a list that was recently updated in SBS, are third favourites. These odds do change regularly, so you’ll do well to keep an eye on them, especially if Rangers manage to make some inroads with the new players – although things are still lacking slightly in that department.
Michael Beale bought Danilo from Feyenoord, Cyriel Dessers from Cremonese and Sam Lammers from Atalanta. Still, their combined 2022/23 league goalscoring stats at their previous clubs alone were cause for concern for Rangers supporters. Between them, the three players contributed only 14 league goals the previous season – only one more than Colak netted for the Glasgow side.
Ultimately, failure to find like-for-like replacements for the departed attackers cost Beale his job. Beale’s Rangers team lost three of its first seven league matches in 2023/24, scoring only one goal while doing so. The Englishman, assistant to Steven Gerrard when the Govan-based Glasgow side won the Scottish Premiership in 2020/21, lasted only 11 months as the Rangers manager.
Rangers sacked Michael Beale on 1 October, with Belgian Philippe Clement, formally of Monaco in France’s Ligue 1, taking over two weeks later. Since his appointment, Clement’s team is undefeated in the Scottish Premiership, with five wins and a draw.
These results show a marked improvement, but besides Cyriel Dessers’ three goals over the period, right-back and captain James Tavernier and on-loan winger Abdallah Sima have been Rangers’ primary source of goals. Some may say who scores the goals is irrelevant. Maybe so in the short term, but to truly challenge the current champions throughout a season, Rangers will need more than a single goalscoring striker.
Until the transfer window opens in January, Clement will make do with those he has. It’s likely the manager will look to bring in at least one more goal-scoring forward as soon as he can, though. Will he have the funds to do so after Rangers’ heavy outlay in the summer? Chairman John Bennett ended any doubts at the club’s AGM:
“It (the summer spending) will have no effect on the manager’s plans. The manager has been very clear about the challenges of the January window, everyone knows about that, but I wouldn’t worry at all about the summer spend [sic] and that impinging upon what Philippe wants to do. The board will be ready for January or next summer. We have to keep aspiring to strengthen.”
With Rangers’ Glasgow rivals Celtic already eight points clear in the Scottish Premiership with the busy festive period of fixtures still to come. Clement will need to move fast in January to strengthen his squad and find goalscoring consistency among his forwards. The rumour mill has Aberdeen’s Bojan Miovski and Lawrence Shankland listed among potential striking acquisitions for Clement in January.
Narrowing the gap to Celtic will depend on The Gers’ ability to compete with its neighbours. Celtic will score goals regularly, so it will be up to Phillippe Clement to find a solution. He will likely open the Rangers chequebook during January to do so. Catching Celtic is possible, but not when the right-back scores more goals than the primary striker. For Rangers to win the Scottish Premiership, this will have to change.
