The January Blues

 It's been a while since I wrote an article (apart from a brief one making fun of that lot from the east end Today should have been the Old Firm ), nearly a month I think, and there's quite a lot to catch up on.

The Manager

Since Giovanni Van Bronkhorst came in he's guided the team to a perfect 7 out of 7 in the league, with 13 goals scored and only 1 conceded, and a win and a draw (in a dead rubber in Lyon) in Europe.

I think even the most optimistic of fans wouldn't have predicted a run this perfect when Steven Gerrard and his backroom staff left for pastures new in November.

When you look at the change in mentality, style and play is it really any wonder that Ange his mhob decided they'd rather not play us until they can sign more players to help bolster a squad with maybe 4 fully functioning hamstrings between them?

The biggest change seems to be at the back, where it seemed we were previously conceding goals for fun we've seen an improvement that would rival last season's iron wall at the back. McGregor looks to have gained back some years and even Connor Goldson, who has received a lot of criticism this year, has looked a lot steadier. 

The most obvious though is the change in Barisic's performances. He really seems more comfortable in GVB's new style of play, with the fullbacks not pushing so far forward and allowing the wingers to play wider. He looks to have regained his confidence and could be a massive player for us the rest of the season. 

We also look to be getting Helander back shortly, which will be a massive boost as the big man just provides a sense of stability and calm at the back that is always welcome.

Alfredo Morelos also looks a lot happier in his no.9 role, I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth but I got the impression he wasn't overly happy when asked to play as a near holding midfielder from August to November. He's now back amongst the goals and looks a lot leaner and happier.

The only disappointing thing is that the run has been prematurely put on hold because certain teams saw the progress and were terrified about the prospect of being next in line for a hammering. 

I won't lie, that has made for a fairly boring festive period. I couldn't find myself getting into the other football matches, knowing I should have been getting ready to enjoy a game against our rivals, but it is what it is and they will continue trying to make everyone think they wanted to play the game despite evidence to the contrary. 

Transfer Business

It was no secret going into this window there would be at least one major transfer, and let's be honest it's about time we saw the model kick into play. Nathan Patterson was that major transfer, going to Everton for a club-record sale which could see the club net up to £16m and then some depending on the sell-on clause.

This was an important sale for the club as it saw the planned model of sign for cheap/develop through youth and sell for big finally kick in. Not only that, but by setting a new club record for a sale it sets a marker for what we expect for our players. 

Another important factor about this sale is it causes minimum disruption to the first team. Yes, it's sad to lose such a talent as Patterson, especially one who is a fan of the club like us, but the most important thing is that we win the league this year and if this sale means we can hang on to more important first-team players like Aribo and Kamara then this sale is worth much more than the £16m paid by Everton.

It also has the added bonus of triggering that lot across the city. The best example I saw of this was one of our fans, and I'm sorry I can't remember who you were, tweeting after Newcastle signed Kieren Trippier "I wonder if Atletico Madrid have to put up with Real Madrid fans tweeting them saying it wasn't really for £12m but actually £5m and Atletico are lying to their fans".

That one tweet summed up that lot perfectly. Not a day goes by that a new financial genius pops up telling us they know more about Rangers finances than the people running the club. We even had "agent Scotland" and his pals trying to tell Nathan Patterson's own agent what the actual numbers involved were... You have to feel sorry for agent Scotland though, things just keep going from worse to worse for him. Perhaps if he spent more time concentrating on real life and less time sevcoing it wouldn't be so bad for AM, sorry I mean AS.

So far we've also seen James Sands join the club on an 18-month loan spell, with an option to buy. I can't remember a loan spell of that length since Aaron Niguez, which unfortunately didn't work out. Sands comes very highly thought of in the MLS and already has 7 international caps, so hopefully, this will be more successful.

I won't claim to know anything about him, but the NYFC fans certainly seem disappointed to have lost someone often described as their star player, and we have a decent success rate with American players. so I'm hopeful.

I'm also hopeful this won't be the only transfer in, with rumours of pre-contracts for John Souttar (who personally I'd love to see join) and Danilho Doekhi I wouldn't be surprised to see the club try to bring at least one of them in early if deals can be agreed on the pre-contracts. 

And for those of you looking for the more fantastical signings talk of Xavi Simmons joining are still around, though I'd be very surprised if this is legit talk and not just agents using the club's name as leverage. I hope I'm wrong though.

Competition winner

Finally, a big congratulations to Follow Follow user Pollok92 who won the blog's mail list competition for a 6 month supply of Pure Roasters coffee. I'm sure he'll love it just as much as I do.

Now on to Aberdeen and hopefully another 3 points...

The Rambling Ger

Subscribe

Twitter - @GerRambling

IG - TheRamblingGer