Rangers told what the Celtic transfer trick they must copy as possible summer target identified

Rangers have been told they must up their recruitment game ahead of what will be a huge season for Philippe Clement.

Clement enjoyed a strong start as Gers boss, but his team dropped off dramatically in the final stages of the season, and that saw them miss out on the Premiership and Scottish Cup titles to Celtic.

In his defence, Clement is yet to have a summer transfer window to put his own stamp on his squad. He will get that this summer, and providing he is backed, he knows he will have no excuses come next season, especially given there wasn’t all that much between Rangers and Celtic last season.

But for pundit and Rangers academy graduate Alan Hutton, it will be all about the recruitment for the Gers and their boss this summer. “Philippe Clement is under pressure already after how Rangers finished last season, they didn’t beat Celtic in the league and lost in the Scottish Cup final, that’s not good enough and it has to be better,” he said.

“Recruitment needs to be better, for me there’s too much player turnover at Rangers, they need to build a settled team like at Celtic. They let five players go this year and brought in some players, but they’re all young and inexperienced. They haven’t played in the league and need time to adjust to how intense it is with the fans. I thought they should’ve gone for Lawrence Shankland last season and I still think they should go for him this season, but I think they will look for a younger option.

“There’s so many questions over Rangers this season, will Connor Goldson stay? Will James Tavernier stay? These are top players that may need replacing. There’s a lot of pressure on the manager as the recruitment needs to be right so that they can hit the ground running after last year because of how they finished last season.”

Hutton has also spoke about the possibility of exits at Ibrox this summer, adding: “It would be tough to see James Tavernier leave Rangers. You just have to look at his numbers, he’s second top goalscorer behind Cyriel Dessers from full-back. You look at Tom Lawrence and Todd Cantwell, they need to start contributing more. Losing James Tavernier would be a big blow, he’d be very tough to replace. If you’re going to cash in, you must get as big a fee as possible, so you can reinvest it into the squad.”