RANGERS have made it through another transfer window with all their assets still intact.

The reaction will be one of relief for Steven Gerrard and supporters - from a football point of view, it's undoubtedly great news. 

The squad is stronger than the one that lifted a 55th title, buoyed by the addition of Fashion Sakala and John Lundstram, two players who should prove useful additions in time.

Meanwhile, Celtic have lost three of their best four players in Kris Ajer, Odsonne Edouard and Ryan Christie. 

Despite the positives, the closure of the window without significant sales also marks a lack of progression in an important tenet of the club's financial plans - the player trading model.

This aims to buy players low, develop them in the quality environment created at Auchenhowie and sell high to ensure the club is running as effectively as possible. Members of the Ibrox hierarchy explained clearly at the most recent AGM the need for sales as part of a sustainable future.

Stewart Robertson stated in December: "We have to really focus on that over the next 12 months. We know for the business model of the club we need to start moving one or two players a year. It won't be a big turnover in the squad but that is something we need to do and something we're really focused on for the summer."

It's a model that's been used effectively in smaller leagues around Europe from Oporto to Amsterdam and is widely regarded as a sensible route for the Ibrox board to travel down while trapped by the fiscal confines of competing in the Scottish Premiership.

But there is a fundamental issue preventing this model from working - players of value aren't leaving.

The only notable departures have been fringe players Jordan Jones, George Edmundson, Greg Stewart and Jamie Barjonas with loans for Cedric Itten, Niko Katic, Jake Hastie and Glenn Middleton.

Despite reported interest in the likes of Alfredo Morelos, Glen Kamara, Borna Barisic, Ryan Kent, Ianis Hagi and Nathan Patterson, the club have held onto everyone who would carry a hefty price tag.

Bids have been rejected, of course. 

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Everton’s derisory £5m and £8m offers for Patterson were rightly laughed out of town and there is no negativity to be associated with refusing to yield from a valuation. To the contrary, this attitude is to be applauded after decades of talent departing the country at significantly less than market value.

Robertson also presciently commented on this scenario at the AGM: "It has to reflect our valuation. And if that is the case, we'll have a decision to make.

"While player trading is the important fourth pillar to our model, we have not got ourselves in a position where we have to sell to validate the model. That's not the case."

So the club doesn't need to sell and there should be no panic over the lack of major departures but there are consequences to this show of strength. 

This Rangers squad has been undergoing steady evolution since Steven Gerrard took over the reins in the summer of 2018. He’s carefully cultivated a mightily impressive pool of players that have gone on to achieve immortality by winning 55.

However, should the lack of movement continue, a revolution may be what's needed to take the club forward, such will be the likely turnover in the summer of 2022.

You don't have an Adam Smith level grasp of economics to know valuations dwindle as contracts tick down. One example is Connor Goldson. Yet to sign a new contract and with his current deal ending next summer, he will be free to walk out of Ibrox for nothing in less than a year.

It can be argued this is a situation worth suffering if he is to be a foundation stone in a title win that sees automatic qualification for the Champions League. In that scenario, a £4m or so transfer fee isn’t all that important but he’s only one of a number of top quality players whose asset-value Rangers look to have been unable to fully realise.

Take Kamara. It's been reported for a while he will sign a new deal but with pen yet to be put to paper, there are only three windows left to cash in on his talent.

Joe Aribo, Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos are in the same boat. All top-class players, all worth a fortune, all who will have to be sold in either the January 2022 window - the worst time possible from a football perspective - or the summer if the club is to realise any decent value.

Come the summer, with a year left, it will be a challenge to get top dollar but even more pertinently, that's a lot of talent to replace in one sitting. Unless, of course, you can get them to commit to new contracts - an expensive business.

As much as it’s welcome that these guys are still on the books given their quality, it's surely safe to opine that Rangers won't want the Goldson situation repeating itself. And there aren't too many chances left to avoid that outcome.

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Now, it's important to recognise the transfer market has been somewhat stagnant because of Covid. While you might point to mega-deals from Premier League clubs or at PSG, below the elite level the market is pretty dry.

Some will make unflattering comparisons to Celtic who have managed to rake in £13m for Kristoffer Ajer and £15m for Odsonne Edouard amid the same challenging conditions.

This is more than a touch unfair given their player trading model has been up and running for a number of years now, with all the associated benefits of time and experience to their structure. Now, whether or not they’re investing those funds wisely is another matter entirely but in terms of their trading model, it’s in full flow. When it comes to the selling element, Rangers' model clearly needs more work and that's something that will need to be rectified.

With all that being said, Steven Gerrard will wake up this morning ecstatic that his squad of champions are intact as they embark on their quest for 56.

As a manager, your bread and butter is always the here and now. The long-term strategy is someone else's problem when four or five bad results on the spin can end your tenure in a heartbeat.

And it's his work in winning this season's Scottish Premiership that would be a game-changer. The importance of the Champions League riches that await the title winners this year can't be overstated.

With a guaranteed payout of around £40m, it's the kind of monetary injection that renders all other plans almost superfluous.

And with a player trading model that clearly needs more fine-tuning, it would be vital to bring the club into the kind of financial balance that allows it to become self-sustaining.

Until then though, cash will have to be found by other means to keep the club progressing in the manner everyone expects.

With the last accounts highlighting a £14.4m vacuum to be filled, it appears the board will have to go above and beyond the call of duty and dip back into their pockets once again.