GIOVANNI van Bronckhorst is well aware of how important the January transfer window can be in deciding the direction of the league trophy in May.
The Rangers manager has no doubt transfer dealings in the coming months will play a major role in the Scottish Premiership title race – with both Rangers and Celtic expected to do business.
And Van Bronckhorst – who has experience building a team to topple league champions when he was at Feyenoord – has also learned from past mistakes in the January window.
Aaron Ramsey and Amad Diallo were viewed as marquee signings when they checked in at Ibrox, but a combination of injury trouble and failure to hit the ground running in Glasgow perhaps deemed their loan spells somewhat unsuccessful.
“Aaron was very positive in the games he played and also his influence in the locker room because of his experience,” said Van Bronckhorst when quizzed on transfer dealings in January past. “In the end, he had injuries.
“Diallo didn’t have the impact we wanted him to have.
“When you sign the players, you sign them to have a positive impact and then just have to wait to see if that’s the case.”
This time round, Van Bronckhorst could be forced into the market to reinforce his squad due to horror injury fortunes which have left his squad light. Connor Goldson, John Souttar, Ben Davies and Filip Helander remain out injured leaving a serious gulf in central defence. And with Ianis Hagi and Tom Lawrence not expected to return until after the break, Rangers have been considerable affected by injury troubles this season.
“We already had some injuries before the season stated, with Ianis, Helander and Souttar. They are players who haven’t been able to play a lot,” said Van Bronckhorst on the possibility of being forced to do business to bolster his squad amid the injury concerns.
“In recent months we also have Lawrence, Goldson and now Davies with some injuries
“It’s in football. If you look around you now just before the World Cup, the schedule is so demanding and dense, you see so many players getting injured now.
“It’s not good for us as club coaches and not good for the World Cup when you miss a lot of players.”
Probed on how many new faces he’d like in January, the Dutchman was coy, adding: “I don’t know at the moment. We still have two months to prepare.
“When we come in December, the second part of December, we will know which players we will have back or still have to wait. Then we can decide and pinpoint positions we might have to strengthen.”
And while Van Bronckhorst is keen to add players to his squad if possible in the coming transfer period, he also warned Rangers must stay alert in case any players depart.
“Of course you always want to add players in January if possible, if needed. We still have a lot of players out with injuries.
“We have to look really well at which players are coming back in January.
“In every window you firstly don’t want to lose players.
“It’s like the beginning and the end is important because you want to finish the end of the window more strongly than when you went in.
“That means you have to be prepared for maybe players going out or adding players to be stronger as a squad. That will be no different in this window.”
The challenges that face Van Bronckhorst don’t appear to faze the Ibrox boss who spoke candidly of his time in the Netherlands where he led Feyenoord to their first Eredivisie title in 18 years. Back then, the Dutchman was working with a team full of faces without league-winning experience or major Cup success prior to his appointment. In theory, then, he’s still one step ahead in Glasgow with Rangers’ league triumph in 2020/21 and Scottish Cup win last season.
“Two years ago the players here were champions, so they have shown they can win trophies,” said Van Bronckhorst as he cited the parallels between Rangers and Feyenoord.
“In my time at Feyenoord, a big part of my squad hadn’t won any major trophies in their career.
“In 2016, we won the cup. It was very positive for the players to get the experience of lifting a trophy and the year after we were champions.
“We had a really good, balanced team with young players and experienced players.
“We played really well and I think this year the difference for us in the league is four points but we have only played 12 games.
“There is a lot of the competition to be played and, of course, it is still possible to be champions of Scotland.
“We didn’t have any big injuries that season, so that always helps. The longer you can play with your players together, the better.
“That hasn’t been the case with the players in the first few months here, so we have to adapt our line-ups because we’ve been without players.
“I think the most important thing which we had that year was the belief to become champions and we have to show that in every game we play here.”
