- Share
Misery increases for Gers
This week's North of the Border looks at Rangers' transfer catastrophe and the other stories from the window.
SOLD FOR TOFFEES
The morning after the close of trading, the catastrophic nature of Rangers' January business hit like a hangover. Ally McCoist, the Rangers manager, was left with a headache that is likely to last until the summer.
On Tuesday night, he lost his ace in a late deal and was denied in his subsequent bid to recruit a replacement. The network of January transfers is often compared to dominoes. More accurate is a game of musical chairs, and this time Rangers were on their feet when the music stopped.
The sale of Nikica Jelavic was trailed as heavily as a Mission Impossible sequel and that is a decent description of their attempts to win a fourth consecutive championship. They began that campaign with Jelavic and Steven Naismith spearheading a brutal winning streak. With the Scotland forward out for the season after knee ligament damage and Jelavic sold for £5.5 million to Everton, their frontline is weak and shallow.
Grant Holt, the experienced and direct Norwich City captain, would have been a fine pick-up in such an hour of need, but his club turned down Rangers' bid and as the clock ticked down, they had nowhere left to go.
All this came less than 24 hours after a newspaper in Scotland had become the latest media organisation to be struck from Rangers' good graces. The Daily Record published a story suggesting that the takeover of the club by Craig Whyte, the chairman, was funded by the sale of future season ticket revenue. While Whyte admitted financing the club through an arrangement with a firm called Ticketus - a relationship he said was set up by his predecessors - he insisted the takeover was funded by his other businesses. He also refuted claims in the article that, on his watch, Rangers had added an unpaid VAT bill of £5 million to their substantial beef with the tax authorities.
Whyte said the sale of Jelavic was inevitable as the player wished to leave and Rangers needed the money. However, it is their failure to prepare for his replacement that has weakened McCoist's team almost beyond recognition from the championship favourites they were before the injury to Naismith.
MURPHY'S LAW
The general rule that has emerged in recent seasons is that Scottish players of promise are sold earlier than ever before to predators in England. The exception came in the final hours of the transfer window as Jamie Murphy, Motherwell's Scotland Under-21 forward, rejected a transfer to Blackpool after the two clubs had reached agreement on a fee.
Murphy started the season in excellent form as Motherwell established themselves at the front of the pack behind the Old Firm. However, as they have been dragged back into a bubbling competition for that spot, Murphy has cooled off considerably, and this may have informed his decision to stick around a while longer at a level where he can ride out such a dip without fear of disappearing out of sight or being farmed out on loan.
His next interview may be an insightful one, but for now Motherwell fans have only these crumbs from the Twitter table: 'looking forward to the rest of the season #mfc'.
RAISING CAPITAL
The difference in size and spending power between the two clubs at the bottom of the SPL was illustrated by Hibernian's frenzied activity on deadline day.
Their chairman, Rod Petrie, had already allowed his new manager, Pat Fenlon, to reshape his squad during January. On the final day of the window he loaned Roy O'Donovan, a striker from Coventry, and Matt Doherty, a defender with Premier League game time with Wolves. Jorge Claros, a 26-year-old Honduran midfielder who had impressed McCoist while on trial with Rangers this month, ended up in Edinburgh on a year-long contract, too. Pa Saikou Kujaibi, a full-back from Gambia, signed until the end of next season.
Fenlon cut loose Michael Hart, the former Aberdeen right-back, and Akpo Sodje as Fenlon completed a ferocious turnover of playing staff in January.
Dunfermline, one point behind Hibs, released John Potter, their starting centre-back, bringing in Jordan McMillan from Rangers as a replacement. The loan signing from the same club of Kyle Hutton, a midfielder, gave them a net gain on the final day of trading without the radical reshuffle that took place across the Forth Road Bridge at Hibs.
AS SEEN ON TV
Perhaps the most impressive performers on the last day of business were Falkirk of the First Division. On Sunday, they lost their League Cup semi-final against Celtic 3-1 at Hampden, earning a substantial pay day in the process and raising further the reputation of a young and talented team.
Their top performer at the national stadium - and the semi-final's man of the match - was the forward Kallum Higginbotham, who, less than 48 hours later, was sold to Huddersfield for "a six-figure sum". The 22-year-old signed for Falkirk on a free from Rochdale, two years ago.
Also signed by the same club was Murray Wallace, a talented 19-year-old centre-back picked up two years ago after being released from the Rangers academy. Wallace moves to Huddersfield for £300,000, reaching a potential £700,000 with add-ons. He is also loaned back to Falkirk for the rest of this season, in which they have an outside shot at promotion.
Finally, Falkirk turned down a bid by Blackpool for their former Celtic midfielder, Mark Millar, claiming the valuation placed on the player by the Championship club did not meet their own. Sometimes, as they Rangers and Motherwell may discover in different ways between now and the end of the season, it's not about the ones you buy, but the ones you don't sell.
