Philippe Clement has counted them back in again. Now Rangers must count another handful out. The wheeling and dealing phase of the window has begun at Ibrox.

The focus has all been on the incomings in recent weeks as Clement has started to address some of the weaknesses within the group that he inherited from Michael Beale last October. It was a squad that wasn’t fit for purpose, in both a physical sense and in terms of quality, and the narrative has been around a rebuild for the second successive summer. The foundations this time around are not exactly solid.

The acquisitions of Jefte, Oscar Cortes, Clinton Nsiala and Connor Barron represent a solid start to the window for Clement and Nils Koppen, the director of football recruitment. Moroccan striker Hamza Igamane will follow, while Liam Kelly’s return to Rangers is all in place and he will be added to the group now that he has returned from duty in Germany.

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

Rangers have been on the front foot due to the needs of their manager and the constraints of the timescale as preparations continue for the new campaign. Clement and his staff returned to Auchenhowie on Monday morning for the next milestone of the summer. It was the first day of pre-season, the first day of a new cycle. For many of those that reported for action, it will be the beginning of the end.

Five familiar faces – Jon McLaughlin, Borna Barisic, Ryan Jack, John Lundstram and Kemar Roofe – were absent this time around after they left the club at the end of their contracts. Over the coming weeks, several more will follow them as Rangers move in a different direction on and off the park. The outlay on wages does not match the return in silverware and the money that has gone out the door on injured players is unsustainable in the boardroom and the dressing room.

The profile of the squad will be changed as Clement and Koppen shop in new markets for fresh faces. The arrival of Barron fulfilled their wish to sign at least one promising Scottish talent in every window, while moves for Jefte, Cortes and Nsiala are examples of Rangers executing a plan to reduce the average age of the group and to have players who are motivated by individual improvement and collective achievement.

Come the end of the window, this will be a squad that are not burdened by recent failures, that do not have big game defeats and title collapses weighing them down. Clement is not ripping it all up and starting again, but Rangers could do a dozen deals out and a dozen in this summer. Some, of course, will be easier to complete than others.

The scale of the outgoings will be indicative of where Rangers are and where they are heading. Clement referenced the ‘end of a cycle’ in the closing stages of last term and many supporters would like to see widespread changes to a squad that have failed too often in recent years. If James Tavernier and Connor Goldson were to depart, for example, that would be quite the statement from Rangers. Interest from Saudi Arabia remains strong, and any conversation would not begin with a flat-out refusal from this end of the negotiations.

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The futures of Tavernier and Goldson, the captain and vice-captain, will dominate the agenda. Interest in Jack Butland will be high on the list of talking points, too. Yet it is the handful of players who do not carry the profile or the price tag that will shape how the coming weeks unfold for Clement. The Belgian does not need to sell before he buys in financial terms, but he does need to clear the decks to alter the look and feel of Rangers this summer and players cannot be stockpiled this summer.

Some of the names are obvious ones. Robby McCrorie will leave in search of first team football, while the likes of Ben Davies and Leon King are clearly surplus to requirements given how little they featured last season. Kieran Dowell and Scott Wright fall into that category as well.

The conversation around Todd Cantwell would perhaps not be as black and white amongst the support but he is expected to find himself out of favour this summer and an exit is likely. Rangers need more, in every sense, from that No.10 position and shifting on Cantwell, and perhaps Tom Lawrence, as well as returning loan players Ianis Hagi and Sam Lammers will free up fees and wages that can be put to better use.

It is, of course, all fine and well saying that players are not wanted. It takes more than that for players to leave, though, and that is the challenge facing Koppen and John Bennett now that he has assumed the role of executive chairman. There are deals to be done and Rangers must maximise the value of each one. 

Speculation linking players away from Ibrox has been somewhat scarce thus far. It must be remembered, though, that not every club is as eager as Rangers to do business at this stage of proceedings. As more managers return to their desks, more agents will see their phones ring. Koppen and Bennett will have theirs in hand for many hours each day going forward as Rangers work through their to-do list.

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The undertaking is a substantial one. Players may be settled off the pitch in Glasgow and many will be well remunerated here. As a result, a lack of match minutes might not be enough to convince them to instruct their agents to find them an escape route from Ibrox.

Some will be more amenable to leaving and the negotiations over Lammers, for example, could work in Rangers’ favour given the way he transformed his fortunes during a stint at FC Utrecht in the second half of the season. A player who looked like becoming a costly mistake could now give Rangers funds that can be recycled. Hagi will have a value in the market given his name and appearances at Euro 2024.

(Image: SNS)

In terms of the higher value assets, both are players that Clement does not want to lose. Retaining the services of Ridvan Yilmaz, who the Rangers Review understands is happy in Glasgow and has no desire to move on, could be easier than the situation with Butland, though. The Englishman will command a hefty fee and supporters can only hope that money doesn’t talk too loudly when it comes to Premier League interest.

The focus to this point has been, as it had to be, on who was coming in. Over the next couple of weeks, attentions will be split on the arrivals and the departures. It has been busy to date, but the momentum could start to really build now that marker posts are being reached all the time as Rangers travel towards the new campaign. There will be plenty of conversations behind closed doors in these first days of the summer schedule.

Clement will take his side to Holland next month for a training camp and the players that make up the travelling party will form the foundations of the squad for a pre-season calendar that includes matches with Ajax, Manchester United, Birmingham City and Union Berlin. By the time the real stuff starts in August, Rangers will have evolved once again.

READ MORE: The Connor Barron inside track: Energy, humility and Ibrox transfer

The time to judge Clement and Koppen is not the first day of pre-season. Once the clock strikes on deadline day at the end of August, the full picture rather than a June snapshot will be evident. It will say a thousand words.

The sight of fresh faces with new shirts on their backs and scarves over their heads always get the pulses racing for supporters. That will be no different this time around. The goodbyes will not be more important to future aspirations than the hellos but they will resonate in their own way. They will be counted carefully at Ibrox.