Former Rangers skipper Barry Ferguson has shared what he knows about the Ibrox club’s transfer strategy after the signing of Connor Barron.
Philippe Clement and Nils Koppen have hit the ground running on the transfer front as they both seek to overhaul the first-team squad across the summer.
The pair have already added Brazilian left-back Jefte and former AC Milan youngster Clinton Nsiala to the Rangers ranks – and Hamza Igamane is reportedly set to join them next week.
But Gers’ latest recruit is Scottish midfielder Barron, who signed on Thursday after he left Aberdeen for nothing at the end of his contract.
Barron put pen to paper on a four-year deal and represents a change of direction for Rangers in the sense that he is a young, homegrown talent.
And writing in the Daily Record, Ferguson is delighted his former team are heading back down that route of casting the transfer net closer to home, which he reveals is going to be a more regular occurrence over the next few seasons.
Rangers transfer outlook divulged by Ferguson
Barry Ferguson wrote in his weekly column: “While the board are making plans to check out of Ibrox for four weeks, it was good to see Connor Barron checking in.
“He’s a young player I’ve liked the look of for a while and exactly the type of profile I believe the club should be striving to add more regularly.
“The team I played for certainly wasn’t short on foreign flare. But those big-money signings from abroad were always built around a Scottish core who knew the club and understood how things worked in Glasgow.
“Guys like Kris Boyd, Kenny Miller and Stevie Naismith were just as important down the years as a Ronald de Boer, Arthur Numan or Pedro Mendes.
“I’m told the club have a goal to bring in at least one homegrown signing each season moving forward and for me that’s key.
“Young Connor is the first for a while and I’m confident he’ll fit right in.”
Rangers revisit rarely travelled path
Rangers were renowned for cherry-picking the best Scottish talent outwith the Glasgow goldfish bowl and developing them into more established stars.
As Ferguson alludes to, the likes of Kris Boyd and Steven Naismith – both recruited from Kilmarnock after promising starts to their careers – are perfect examples.
That was 18 years ago however and since then, Rangers have increasingly neglected the domestic market in favour of searching for recruits across the rest of the world.
In fact, Rangers have made just two homegrown Scottish signings since 2019 in the shape of Scott Wright from Aberdeen and John Souttar from Hearts.
That fact won’t sit too well with Gers supporters to it’s refreshing to hear from Ferguson that the club are now once again committed to adding players who they know first-hand can flourish in the Scottish Premiership.
