Alex McLeish demands Rangers act NOW over out of contract stars or risk fatal domino effect of 2003
dailyrecord.co.ukAlex McLeish guided Rangers to a Treble in 2003 then watched his trophy-laden squad crumble in a summer of out-of-contract chaos.
This time next year – the 20th anniversary of that domestic clean sweep – he’d hate to think current Ibrox boss Gio van Bronckhorst will have to face the same massive rebuild.
Which is why McLeish believes the Dutchman will have some serious soul-searching ahead of him with Ryan Kent, Joe Aribo and Alfredo Morelos free agents next summer.
If they don’t sign extended deals they’ll need to be sold to ward off the spectre of losing the trio for nothing.McLeish believes the situation is a massive headache for Van Bronckhorst, who already faces the prospect of losing Calvin Bassey – albeit for a massive fee if the club takes advantage of the Nigeria international being on a long-term contract.But Aribo, Kent and Morelos will see their value in the transfer market disappear if they don’t re-sign.A year from now that trio – who could net the club more than £30million if they were sold with a couple of years still on their deals – will head for pastures new.And that has given McLeish unwanted flashbacks to the summer when he lost Arthur Numan, Barry Ferguson, Claudio Caniggia, Lorenzo Amoruso, Neil McCann and Bert Konterman – some of whom were sold but with most leaving on Bosmans.McLeish was forced into a frantic few weeks of wheeling and dealing in the free transfer market and while some of the arrivals had been genuine quality in their heyday – Frank de Boer, Emerson, Nuno Capucho, Egil Ostenstad, and Henning Berg – they were well past their peak and made little impact.And Rangers went from Treble winners to finishing second in the league the following season, losing their grip on the Scottish
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