Rangers - State of play so far

Well, I don't think that anyone would argue that Mark Warburton has been a breath of fresh air since he breezed into Ibrox with his sidekick David Weir.

The transformation has been great, not only on the park, where he has got the fans enthusing about the team rather than moaning; plenty of goals, only 1 defeat (against Premiership opposition) and clear at the top of the league.

On the park is going well, but his manner off the park and everything that he has said and done to date just oozes class. He has a presence about him which fits well into a big club, and I think most people can only be impressed by the way he goes about his business.

I think January will be interesting to see just what areas he feels need to be strengthened. He has said that he has a solid core of a team which he believes could compete in the Premiership next year, but I would contend that he probably needs at least 5/6 better quality players in to give it a good go if (and hopefully when) Rangers get there for next season.

There was always going to be a bit of a feel-good factor early on, and that has started to tail off a bit now. Performances are now a bit more patchy, and some of the possible frailties are showing, albeit results are still being achieved. Let's face it, all teams go through poorer spells, and Rangers are probably there just now. Also, teams have had a chance to see how they play and put plans in place to counter this, so the 5 and 6 goals a game from earlier in the season may be a bit less evident in the coming weeks and months.

Having said all that, an 8 point gap is excellent at this stage, and a win against Hibs next week would make it very difficult for them to come back from.

So in summary, great so far, but we're maybe not as good as some Rangers fans would have us believe we are. A couple of decent buys in January, and then maybe 3-4 more in the summer, and we should be in a position to make a good fist of it. I doubt we would have enough for a serious challenge in our first season back, but Top 3 should definitely be something we would be aiming for. That would then give us a better platform and profile to target better quality players to try to bridge the gap to Celtic.

Off the park, I think Keith Jackson probably makes a few decent points in his article, but remember, this is not the Dave King show. There are other people running the club; people with good business experience who I trust to do the best for the club. In many ways for Rangers, silence is golden.