Club Strategy - Is there one?

Whoever is in power/making the final decision is not strong enough. I suspect that is Les.

You are absolutely right that we should stick to whatever strategy we want long term. But we always deviate from that and seem to give in to whatever the manager wants or we panic.

In the summer Beale said he didn't want loan signings at first... we ended up with a squad full of them. The club were saying we need to let Barbet go because of his age and no sell-on value... we then sign his Grandad Leon Balogun.

Last season Warburton was allowed to bring in the likes of Odubajo, before that Lee Wallace etc. These are not in the best long term interests of the club.

Who can forget Steve McClaren being brought in to coach the kids and after 4 defeats we panic and he's allowed to bring in 4 or 5 loans of age 30+ players. Ryan Manning was sent out on loan, BOS couldn't get a game.

Nobody should be giving the green light to these deals when they are not what the plan is.


The club has a strategy but aren't strong enough to stick to it, and therefore the club continues to fail.

Until somebody in power is strong enough to perhaps even let a manager walk out because they aren't getting what they want we aren't going anywhere.

Barbet going is looking more and more like a financial decision, I don't think they could afford to keep him, similar to most of the ones released last summer

The issue is that everything revolves around FFP and because the club has to comply and because we've been mismanaged it means we can only sign players on a free or from the bargain basement. As with any business if theres no serious investment then things stagnate and there's no growth.

Thats why in my opinion its vital that our transfer strategy gets us the best we can afford rather than just signing other clubs dross.

If we continue to operate in the way we are then we just become a club who play fixtures but without any ambition. 

The quality of our squad had us top after 16 games like daveb said above. The players are good enough, they just aren't as committed to the cause as much as players from other sides and that stings. They don't have the fight or the heart to dig in and lay everything on the line once the going gets tough. And that should be the bare minimum.

Certainly Armstrong is the future but, as shown at Hull, despite being a fast player, he still is too slow in reacting to a good defensive line and ends up offside a lot. No surprises as he is still learning his trade at Championship level, which is far more demanding that 'B Team' or League One level matches. As with Eze, we have to endure the mistakes and enjoy the odd brilliance! 
With regard to whether the club does have a strategy: I suspect it does have one, but it is poorly defined and probably rests with Sir Les. It should be focused upon a good scouting system with a focus upon younger, rough diamonds to be polished up (if possible) and then sell on when they have proven themselves and benefited the club. Their should be demands from the manager for certain types of players and positions; frequent checks from Lee Hoos on finances available; and regular input from Chris Ramsay on the development potential. I think all that is there - but in a poorly defined, unstructured way. That means we rely more on luck than judgement when it comes to strategic planning.

Really interesting thread and some valid points.

I do think the owners/Management are continuing to learn and improve what they are doing, the fact we haven't panic bought in the window shows this (or is this the lack of ambition mentioned above!). While the new manager hasn't had the start we wanted he was a good choice both now and in the summer when I believe he was on the short list, Beale was also a good appointment as was Warburton before him.

We now finally have a good training ground set up and have some level of recruitment that while will not always work seems to have a direction and therefore we can potentally sell some players for a profit in the summer if they find a bit of form.

It's not looking good right now but from what I can gather we are more financially sound than we have been for many years and have a platform to grow in the coming years.

Having said all that it's shit being the fourth best team in West London.

I think that the latest report in West London Sport clearly confirms my previous suggestions that the club's owners only strategy is a "smoke and mirrors approach. This was in WLS on 01/03/2023.

The club’s holding company’s audited accounts for the year ended 31 May 2022 show a loss of approximately £24.7m for the 2021-22 season. That is a loss of around £474,000 per week.

The alarming figure represents a steep rise from the £4.1m loss posted for the previous financial year.

It appears to seriously undermine the image Rangers have sought to portray; one of a club that has learned from past financial mistakes and been focused on steady progress and reducing losses.