The Rangers summer transfer merry-go-round hasn’t quite kicked into gear yet but it’s early days, with the window barely opened officially. The rumour mill has started and the names being linked of the supposed targets all have one thing in common -youthfulness and a lack of experience.

‘You can’t win anything with kids’ was a famous saying by Alan Hansen on Match of the Day as he watched Scholes, Butt, both Nevilles and Beckham be beaten as part of Alex Ferguson’s new look Manchester United on the opening day of the 1995 season. United would go on to win the league that season and those players would be key in many successes to come.


READ MORE: Check all the Rangers transfer news & rumours before the transfer window


Rangers don’t have that conveyor belt of youths to come into the team but those that have arrived are all in their early twenties and do not have a lot of first team football behind them. Clinton Nsiala arrives from AC Milan yet to play any first team football at all. Whilst you want a young, exciting prospect pushing the first team regulars, it’s a lot to ask of him to be expected to slot straight into our first team.

Jefte is only 20, Oscar Cortes is 20, Mohammed Diomande is 22 and the aforementioned Nsiala is also 20. That can be exciting, because the energy and enthusiasm will be there, as well as the hunger to succeed. But how do we balance that with another vital component - experience?

Albion Rrahmani is 23, Connor Barron is 21, Damian Garcia is 20, Yusuf Kabadayi is 20. Just some of the names and profiles linked to Rangers. I like it, it’s clearly an exciting change in strategy and finally it looks like the club have identified a plan of action. Buy young, nurture and help progress those players before enhancing their values and abilities. 

READ MORE: How Koppen and Clement sold Nsiala on Rangers move amid Euro offers

This then is finally activating the much discussed player trading model, this forth pillar of the business plan, as Rangers emerge with a team of talent and assets. Sounds great in theory.

But the question still remains, do we need experience and if so where and how? James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, Tom Lawrence and Ben Davies may bring that nous to the squad currently, but all of them are being strongly linked with moves away from the club. That, coupled with the loss of Ryan Jack, John Lundstram, Kemar Roofe and Borna Barisic, means that there is a lot of experience - players who know the club and know the game here - walking out the door at the one time.

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But let’s be honest, all of those named perhaps needed or need to go anyway. As the manager put it, that cycle was coming to an end. 

So where is that experience coming from? Well there are plenty of possibilities to add to the squad right throughout the team. The side requires almost a player, in some cases two, for every position. Some already here must step up as well.

The last title-winning team had that throughout the group. Allan McGregor, Steven Davis, Scott Arfield, Jermain Defoe, the spine of the team, provided that know how and that leadership, both on and off the park. Rangers have Jack Butland, but what other natural leaders would they be left with if all the others did go? 

That is the conundrum facing the manager and he has to get that balance absolutely right. None of the players that arrive this summer will have faced the pressure or expectancy levels that of support and Ibrox, so a few old heads throughout may not be a bad thing. 

READ MORE: Inside Ridvan Yilmaz’s Rangers future as transfer call made amid exit rumours

Rangers targets aren’t perhaps at the level of that Utd 1995 team. And remember, it still had Eric Cantona, Steve Bruce and Andy Cole to offer that experience and the balance, as it turns out, was absolutely fantastic. But this isn’t 1995 and this isn’t that group of youngsters, which is arguably as good a group as anyone has ever seen come through at any major football club. 

Getting a couple of key older heads in may just really help the exciting, youthful targets that Rangers are looking at, as well as those who have already arrived. It’s an exciting strategy and there’s plenty for the fans to look forward to, but watching how we do this will be intriguing. Philippe Clement may decide he wants any signings to fit the youthful profile he has already brought in and then he will hope that Hansen's very famous statement is once again proven wrong. One thing for sure, it’s an intriguing conundrum we will all watch unfold.

Finally, best wishes to Alan Hansen. We all wish him a speedy recovering after his recent health issues. Get well soon.