If it’s presumed and Lennon does indeed bring in a couple of new faces next week, particularly a goalkeeper and another striker (Maybe another centre back too?), then we will have a very good squad next season. One that should win the league with particular ease, despite the recent arrivals to the other half in the West of Glasgow…
Another confession to make: I’m a big fan of Nikica Jelavic. I even said before Rangers were linked with him that I would prefer Celtic to sign him than Bellamy. Alas, after that statement Rangers were dually linked with him and he looks to join Vladimir Weiss at Ibrox.
I’m probably not the only one who is a bit mystified to how they can afford both Jelavic and Weiss, not to mention James Beattie last week. That’s at least £6 million plus a helluva lot of wages, not bad for a club that’s so far into the red that they make Greece’s current economical state look stable.
Jelavic is a great player, despite what various Celtic fans will say. If it was us that he was signing for then the opinions would no doubt be different, and with Bellamy joining Cardiff over Celtic, a little bit of envy is maybe only natural.
Okay, maybe not envy as such but they have got themselves a solid striker who despite is his record, did score 21 goals last season. Even though he has a record of 1 in 3, he still will cause the league a lot of problems and I fully expect him to be in the top three in the goal scorer charts.
Even great strikers like Craig Bellamy and Chris Sutton didn’t have the greatest of striking rates, but they’re all round play was fantastic. I just hope Lennon buys a replacement for Loovens as I’m almost certain Jelavic will bully him like Kenny Miller did and like just about every other striker in the SPL did last season.
As much as I like the prospect of Gary Hooper, we need another striker. Samaras was great last night against Utrecht, but he’s far too inconsistent to be relied upon for the entire season. It’s also unfair on Hooper to rely on him for the majority of the goals in his debut season for the club, so it makes sense to bring someone else in, even if we play 4-2-3-1 for the majority of the season.
I have to admit: I’m happier than anyone else to see Lennon try out the 4-2-3-1 formation this season after I wrote an article on it after the World Cup. We have some real quality midfielders in our team now, and with the flexibility of the formation, it allows the team to attack in all sorts of ways, as the games against Caley and Utrecht showed.
Even the likes of Cha Du-Ri is bombing forward at every given opportunity (Potential cult hero by the way) and Ledley is controlling games with ease, not to mention Kayal’s introduction last night. Once we get a proper goal scorer at the helm of the formation in the form of a fit Hooper, I think we could really flourish in a couple of months when we are properly used to it. A few 5-0 hammerings will be more than welcomed…
As said previous, it’s just good to see the team creating chance after chance and not afraid to have a go, unlike in previous regimes. If the team can play like this for the majority for the season there’s no amount of Nikica Jelavic’s that can save Rangers.
Finally, a quick word on Daniel Majstorovic: I think I love him already. I’ve longed for the club to sign a defender who looks like he eats raw meat and puts Scott Brown’s stare-down to shame. To put it lightly, he looks like a right nasty bastard. Something we’ve lacked for quite a while, I’m sure he won’t be asked twice to put the boot in when required and show the likes of Beattie and Jelavic what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a Majstorovic special.
Long live Dan, I say (Not me, but you can worship me if you so desire).
Follow Daniel on twitter: @dannygillespie