Barry Ferguson says the Ibrox side still need a dominant midfielder — after twelve summer signings. Celtic bought four players and filled four real gaps.

This morning, Barry Ferguson has used his column in the Record to tell us the Ibrox side are still a player short.

One player.

In the middle of the park.

Now, I’ve read it twice, and I want to be fair to the man here, because the football in it is not wrong at all.

Here’s what he had to say:

But as a former midfielder, I can’t help looking at another area of this Rangers team – the engine room.

And for me, they STILL need a dominant force in the middle of the park.

He wants an orchestrator.

Somebody who can speed the game up or slow it down, and get them all together on a bad night and say ‘calm down’.

Fine.

That’s a midfielder describing the midfielder he used to be, and there is nothing wrong with that.

It’s the arithmetic sitting underneath it that had me laughing into my tea.

Twelve players went through that door this summer, and their most famous former captain has found a hole in the middle.

Twelve.

And counting, because they’ve been briefing all week that more are coming before the third.

The Record had the gross spend north of £24 million when it was only ten of them.

Ten in, ten out, and a manager still asking for a wee bit of help.

And here is Barry, a man who captained the old club, squinting at the finished article and going: aye, but where’s the midfielder?

Barry Fergsuon discusses taking over the captaincy of Rangers from Amoruso. pic.twitter.com/nqZH1w7rZg

— The Rangers Archives (@OldRangersVideo) July 27, 2019

Where indeed, Barry.

So what is the recruitment department over there actually doing, if twelve bodies can’t cover one position?

Because that’s the question his column asks without ever quite asking it.

Twelve signings isn’t a squad refresh, it’s a full team plus a substitute.

You could field the lot of them and still have somebody warming up on the touchline.

And the one thing their own legend can’t stop staring at is the gap where a controlling midfielder should be.

That’s not bad luck.

That is a recruitment operation buying players because they were available, rather than because somebody sat down in June and wrote out what the team actually needed.

Is there a list over there at all?

Or does somebody just answer the phone to whichever agent rings first?

Because from here it has looked like a scramble since the middle of July.

Dan Neil was supposed to be that man, by the way.

Ferguson says so himself – captain’s armband against Jablonec, and he’s still waiting on him to come out of his shell.

So they did identify the position.

They just filled it with the wrong man and moved on to the next eleven.

And here’s the bit Barry slips in that nobody over there will want to dwell on.

He reckons they’ll need another top midfielder on top of that if Raskin or Barron leaves.

So it isn’t one position after twelve signings, it could be two.

Twelve in, and the engine room might still need gutting before the third of September?

Geez peace.

Celtic bought four players, and every one of them went into a hole we already knew we had.

The forward positions were an issue all of last season.

In came Camilo Duran and Kasper Høgh.

Kaspar Schmeichel retired, so we needed a keeper to push Viljami Sinisalo.

Balázs Tóth incoming.

Reo Hatate downed tools and wanted out, so we needed a like-for-like in there.

Mika Baur.

We’ve been covering left-back with loans for years, and Kieran Tierney can’t play every week.

Landon Emenalo incoming.

And we were crying out for somebody on the right who could actually beat a man.

Haissem Hassan.

Four in, four problem positions dealt with, two more lined up to come in and it also looks as if Ermin Mahmic is almost a done deal.

That’s the whole trick, and it costs nothing but ten minutes and a pen.

You write down what’s broken, then you go and buy the thing that fixes it.

Is that really beyond a club with twelve signings and £24 million of somebody else’s money?

And before anybody accuses me of going soft on our own board, none of this was their idea.

Michael Nicholson didn’t wake up in July with a sudden gift for squad planning. He was told what to do.

Martin O’Neill told this board not to mess him about, and for once they did as they were told.

That’s the only reason there’s a list at all.

But a strategy you were bullied into is still a strategy.

And it beats whatever it is they’re running at Ibrox, where twelve men arrive in one summer and the shape of the team is somehow blurrier in August than it was in May.

Of course there’s a hole in the middle, and there are holes everywhere else as well.

Barry has just picked out the one he used to fill himself.

So how come they can’t seem to work that way at Ibrox?

It isn’t money, because they’ve spent more than we have, and it isn’t ambition either.

It’s that nobody over there wrote the list.

So no, I don’t think it’s hard.

Four bought, four filled – and a support that can name every one of them and tell you exactly why he’s here.

Twelve bought, and their own captain is still looking for a midfielder.

Quality over quantity, or the supermarket sweep.

One of those builds a football team.

The other one builds a bill.

Nuff said.

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