Three days before the start of the season Barry Ferguson has told Daily Record readers that he is so excited he is putting on his shin guards in anticipation.
It is typical stuff from the former Alloa and Kelty boss who feels the need to underline his true blue credentials when he gets on the phone to one of the Record reporters.
A serious of unconvincing pre-season matches rescued by the reassuring figure of Tavpen have put a bit of a dampener on the euphoria of June and early July as the Micky Beale Revolution took shape.
Signing three relegated strikers while adding just one defender and a goalkeeper has left Beale’s defence looking very vulnerable with Ridvan Yilmaz, Borna Barisic and Ben Davies appearing more frequently than most bears would like to see.
Deadwood like Glen Kamara, Rabbi Matondo and Scott Wright are still draining the wagebill with the squad growing in size despite the high profile exits of Alfredo Morelos, Ryan Kent, Scott Arfield, Allan McGregor and Filip Helander at the end of May.
Ferguson’s side for Saturday at Kilmarnock has Connor Goldson and John Souttar in central defence, with their injury record the surface at Rugby Park could wreck havoc on Beale’s plans for Wednesday’s Champions League qualifier against Servette.
After speculating over eight wins through August to lead the SPFL, join Celtic in the Champions League and reach the last eight of the League Cup, Ferguson faced up to a more realistic scenario for Daily Records:
The flip side is not one they want to experience. Get off to a bad start, drop some points, get knocked out of Europe and the heat will be cranking up. Believe me, I’ve been there and it’s not a place you want to be.
So the only thing they need to worry about for the time being is churning out one win after the next. If the performance level isn’t as stylish or slick as Beale would like it to be then there will be plenty of time for the manager to work on it as the season progresses.
But that becomes a whole lot harder to do if confidence is taking a pounding and the pressure starts to feel like it’s suffocating. That means the next few weeks are absolutely huge in terms of buying that extra bit of time that the manager probably wishes he had to spare right now, with just two days to go until the big kick-off.
From what I’ve seen so far this summer his starting line-up for Killie is going to be very interesting. If big Connor Goldson is fit I’d throw him straight back in beside John Souttar at the heart of defence. James Tavernier and Borna Barisic would be my full-backs with Ryan Jack and Nico Raskin sitting in midfield behind Todd Cantwell, Sam Lammers and Kieran Dowell with Cyriel Dessers up top.
That sounds to me like a team that will be up for the battle. And that’s exactly what Rangers are going to have to be now that Beale’s new era is about to begin.
By this time next week Ferguson and the other bears will have a good idea whether this summer’s Revolution is the real thing or about to go the same way as last summer’s imaginative signing policy undertaken by Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
There has been virtually no balanced or critical media coverage of the new signings or the failure to sell anyone other than Antonio Colak from last season’s flops.
Ahead of facing Sevette next week it is ironic that Beale has sold a striker that has successfully gone through the qualifying process to the group stage in each of the last two seasons.
