Frustrated Kenny Miller reckons Rangers should have spent their money better this summer - with the Ibrox hero looking enviously across the city at Celtic.
Gio van Bronckhorst's side are back in Champions League action on Tuesday night against Napoli as they look to recover from back-to-back 4-0 defeats to Ajax and Celtic with a positive result on matchday two. The disappointing results against their city rivals and in Amsterdam have led to raised eyebrows by some punters over the lack of spending towards the end of the window, having seen off PSV Eindhoven in the playoff to secure the Champions League jackpot.
Meanwhile, Ange Postecoglou was continuing his Parkhead recruitment drive until the final moments of the window with midfielder Oliver Abildgaard arriving on deadline day. Irked pundit Miller reckons that Rangers have spent their summer budget on players that are nowhere near the starting line-up - unlike Postecoglou's Premiership pacesetters.
He vented on Clyde 1 SSB: "The recruitment side is getting a lot of scrutiny at the moment and there are reported figures of £12million that are not even anywhere near the team at the moment. (Ridvan) Yilmaz, (Ben) Davies and even (Rabbi) Matondo, you throw those three players in - £4m, £6m and £2m if that's accurate - they're nowhere near the team at the moment.
"When you're recruiting in a summer, Rangers or Celtic, when you're spending that type of money, they have to be hits. They have to make an impact on that first team. At the moment, there's question marks over Davies - is he going to be the long-term partner for (Connor) Goldson and has he got the quality? Matondo we've seen in flashes but at the moment, he's not going to be a starter.
"Yilmaz, we've barely seen any of him. There's not been much evidence of if it's going to be money well spent. It might be a project but it's a lot of money spent on a project. You go on the other side, they sign Carter-Vickers and Jota, and they're the same players, so are they going to make Celtic better? Well they spent their money and they've spent that money really wisely."
The next caller then flagged up Van Bronckhorst's claim that Rangers would have to spend "hundreds of millions" to compete with their Champions League group rivals Ajax, Liverpool and Napoli. That set Miller off again over finances, as he did the maths on the summer recruitment drive in Govan.
He went on: "Rangers don't have the finances to compete long-term with them (Ajax). It's the same as in the Scottish league. Hibs, Aberdeen, Hearts - they will never compete with Rangers and Celtic over the course of a seasons. Can they beat them on any given day? Absolutely. Can Rangers compete with Dortmund and Leipzig? In these home and away ties with the atmosphere, yes they could. Could the compete in Bundesliga? No they couldn't.
"They don't have the finances and resources these big German clubs do, or in the Premier League for that matter. I agree that Gio is right, you can't compete over a league season. But in a on off game, you can. That's where I come back to the money with the three players I mentioned. You need to make sure that's right. I don't know what backing the manager needs. The Champions League money, Bassey, Aribo and Patterson will be thrown in - and that's why I was surprised they didn't sign anyone before the deadline.
"How much was he backed? By Colak, Davies, Yilmaz and Matondo by my calculations those four players are roughly £14-15m. That is a decent chuck of change for a club like Rangers to go and spend in the summer."
READ NEXT
