Aaron Hickey £17 million

I have honestly never rated him and every time I watch him he still looks like a wee boy.

It goes against the grain though as so many posters on here must be part time Bologna fans due to their constant raving of him.

I just dont see it!
£17m did see it though.
 
Josh Doig is doing well at Verona as well; 5 games, 2 goals and an assist.

Successful Rangers teams have always purchased players from our own league, but people on here always turn their nose up at them. There seems to be a political opinion of "don't give any money to any Scottish club, ever" also making this worse.
 
If we signed him directly from Hearts, I wonder how many would have said on here he’s not good enough.

We seem to have this strange reluctance to sign Scottish players from other SPFL clubs or accept they might be good enough.

This is a big part of the reason most good Scottish players are down south or abroad as I feel both Celtic and (especially) us have some sort of arrogance against signing them.

It's not like Hickey, Doig, McGinn, Ramsey etc all went for huge money.
 
If we'd have signed him when he left Hearts he'd have sat on the bench mostly no doubt.
 
Josh Doig is doing well at Verona as well; 5 games, 2 goals and an assist.

Successful Rangers teams have always purchased players from our own league, but people on here always turn their nose up at them. There seems to be a political opinion of "don't give any money to any Scottish club, ever" also making this worse.
More that if a player is worth a million, Scottish clubs wants three off us. Then complain we buy all their best players and at the same time cut our away allocation by pretending their fans come first.

But it does depend on timing as well. If we had signed them, would either be first choice now? Then we would have posters complaining we spent money on squad players.

The club can't win sometimes.
 
Look at the situation with the hibs Scott Allan situation, will hardly encourage Rangers to try and enter in to negotiation with them again in future after the way it was handled.
 
What it really shows is the value in taking a risk at blooding young players, even if you were to then sell them on.

Unless they play in the XI nobody will buy them and there will be no upward trajectory or subsequent sell on for bigger profits.

Rangers should really be using their development players a lot, lot more.

They may not go for £17M after a few years but they might make the club some decent money as opposed to them leaving for nowt or going for buttons with no sell on.
 
What it really shows is the value in taking a risk at blooding young players, even if you were to then sell them on.

Unless they play in the XI nobody will buy them and there will be no upward trajectory or subsequent sell on for bigger profits.

Rangers should really be using their development players a lot, lot more.

They may not go for £17M after a few years but they might make the club some decent money as opposed to them leaving for nowt or going for buttons with no sell on.
Trouble with that is, at Rangers we absolutely have to win every game or there’s a meltdown and everyone gets dogs abuse.

Playing development players a lot more sounds great in theory but they are all really inconsistent at that age and that results in dropped points.

It’s the same at most big clubs. For every diamond in the rough, there’s another 20-30 who don’t make it, or if they do, at a lower level than us.
 
What it really shows is the value in taking a risk at blooding young players, even if you were to then sell them on.

Unless they play in the XI nobody will buy them and there will be no upward trajectory or subsequent sell on for bigger profits.

Rangers should really be using their development players a lot, lot more.

They may not go for £17M after a few years but they might make the club some decent money as opposed to them leaving for nowt or going for buttons with no sell on.
Particularly as a loan deal for a 'sweetener' when buying top SPFL players. Gets them premiership game time but not against us, keeps the cost of signing down and in some cases may mean the other team doesn't need to replace them.
 
Playing development players a lot more sounds great in theory but they are all really inconsistent at that age and that results in dropped points.
Domestic Cups are an obvs easy option as would be games at home vs the lower team.

Not to say it should be a Team of U21s but I think you could easily start 2 or 3 in games like that with very little risk.

Rangers are and have been incredibly bad at doing it, theyve barely even tried, so we're used to it.

When we shouldnt be.
 
If we'd have signed him when he left Hearts he'd have sat on the bench mostly no doubt.
Which would've been the right call tbf. He's a good player now, but at that time he wouldn't have been good enough for our starting XI. He needed that stint at Bologna to become the player he is now.
 
Hickey has went on to show he’s a great player. But again it’s this snobbery on here when talking about signing Scottish players. Go look at the Lewis Ferguson thread, peoples snobbery turning him down he’s not good enough etc, have they people seen our midfield options this season?

Ferguson is an upgrade over any option we have next to lundstram currently. Davis is too old, still decent to bring on if we’re 2 nil up etc, jack is injury prone, Kamara doesn’t want to be here and should’ve been sold at the end of the window. Arfield is a good sub player. Ferguson starts for us and probably plays a lot of games.
 
Hickey has went on to show he’s a great player. But again it’s this snobbery on here when talking about signing Scottish players. Go look at the Lewis Ferguson thread, peoples snobbery turning him down he’s not good enough etc, have they people seen our midfield options this season?

Ferguson is an upgrade over any option we have next to lundstram currently. Davis is too old, still decent to bring on if we’re 2 nil up etc, jack is injury prone, Kamara doesn’t want to be here and should’ve been sold at the end of the window. Arfield is a good sub player. Ferguson starts for us and probably plays a lot of games.
I agree.
There are things he can't do, that for instance, Kamara can, but then he has attributes that other players don't have, such as a physical presence and the ability to finish.
The way he simply got dismissed because he was at Aberdeen was a bit daft.

He does have limitations, but some very successful footballers have made fantastic careers whilst having limitations.
The secret is learning to play within your particular skill set and fitting intelligently into a team system.
I would take an intelligent footballer with a limited skill set long before I would sign a gifted headless chicken.

It will be interesting to see how well he does in Italy.
 
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We seem to have this strange reluctance to sign Scottish players from other SPFL clubs or accept they might be good enough.

This is a big part of the reason most good Scottish players are down south or abroad as I feel both Celtic and (especially) us have some sort of arrogance against signing them.

It's not like Hickey, Doig, McGinn, Ramsey etc all went for huge money.
Still remember the meltdown on here the night Sone Aluko signed, also remember the meltdown the night David Goodwillie signed for Blackburn

But i agree, especially as it helps with club and nation trained players for European squads
 
Hickey has went on to show he’s a great player. But again it’s this snobbery on here when talking about signing Scottish players. Go look at the Lewis Ferguson thread, peoples snobbery turning him down he’s not good enough etc, have they people seen our midfield options this season?

Ferguson is an upgrade over any option we have next to lundstram currently. Davis is too old, still decent to bring on if we’re 2 nil up etc, jack is injury prone, Kamara doesn’t want to be here and should’ve been sold at the end of the window. Arfield is a good sub player. Ferguson starts for us and probably plays a lot of games.
I don’t think Ferguson is that great a player but your 100% spot in with everything you’ve posted. He’s also Scottish and would help with that quota.
I think we should also have signed Doig rather than Yilmaz for the same reason.
 
I don’t think Ferguson is that great a player but your 100% spot in with everything you’ve posted. He’s also Scottish and would help with that quota.
I think we should also have signed Doig rather than Yilmaz for the same reason.

Both would have been affordable players and would have improved our squad.
 
a lot on here seem to miss the major point, that Brentford ain't getting the same player that was at Hearts, playing in italy would have developed him immensely.
so folks bitching about us no buying scottish talent need to keep that in mind. I very much doubt he'd have improved as much if he had stayed in our league
 
I agree.
There are things he can't do, that for instance, Kamara can, but then he has attributes that other players don't have, such as a physical presence and the ability to finish.
The way he simply got dismissed because he was at Aberdeen was a bit daft.

He does have limitations, but some very successful footballers have made fantastic careers whilst having limitations.
The secret is learning to play within your particular skill set and fitting intelligently into a team system.
I would take an intelligent footballer with a limited skill set long before I would sign gifted headless chicken.

It will be interesting to see how well he does in Italy.

He would have been a very good replacement for Ryan Jack.
 
a lot on here seem to miss the major point, that Brentford ain't getting the same player that was at Hearts, playing in italy would have developed him immensely.
so folks bitching about us no buying scottish talent need to keep that in mind. I very much doubt he'd have improved as much if he had stayed in our league

Which says nothing for the was we develop players. As a club we need to make the likes of Patterson and Bassey the norm.
 
I love the grandads on here saying he’ll get bullied like he’s the same young 17 year old boy that was at Hearts and acting like developing physically is a a myth.
 
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I can’t help feeling that the biggest obstacle to youngScottish prospects is Scotland.

Remove a young player from Scotland and it’s hammer throwing thugs and they have a much more conducive environment to develop their skills. I also can’t help thinking that external factors like the British drinking culture and influence of mediocre former Scottish pro’s within the game is hugely damaging to young minds. A final word for our press who consistently over praise emerging talents as doing so turns them into Billy Bigbaws. A wee bit of praise is great and encouraging but far to many seem to think they’ve made it into the big time as soon as they’ve played 30 minutes as a sub for a lower league club.

Hickey as a great example of a young player having the cajones and confidence in his own ability to step out of this poisonous backwater and learn from those schooled in a much more successful footballing country.

I really wish we could farm some of our young talent to clubs out-with the UK and bring them back when they’ve by passed the young daft lad stage and they have developed into focussed pros who are determined to make the most of their abilities.
 
I can’t help feeling that the biggest obstacle to youngScottish prospects is Scotland.

Remove a young player from Scotland and it’s hammer throwing thugs and they have a much more conducive environment to develop their skills. I also can’t help thinking that external factors like the British drinking culture and influence of mediocre former Scottish pro’s within the game is hugely damaging to young minds. A final word for our press who consistently over praise emerging talents as doing so turns them into Billy Bigbaws. A wee bit of praise is great and encouraging but far to many seem to think they’ve made it into the big time as soon as they’ve played 30 minutes as a sub for a lower league club.

Hickey as a great example of a young player having the cajones and confidence in his own ability to step out of this poisonous backwater and learn from those schooled in a much more successful footballing country.

I really wish we could farm some of our young talent to clubs out-with the UK and bring them back when they’ve by passed the young daft lad stage and they have developed into focussed pros who are determined to make the most of their abilities.
Spot on. When Middleton almost went to Holland, I for one thought that it would be a fantastic move for him and actually had hopes we might get the lad back ready for the first team. When he then decided to remain in Scotland, it sort of spoke volumes of his lack of ambition.
 
I don’t think Ferguson is that great a player but your 100% spot in with everything you’ve posted. He’s also Scottish and would help with that quota.
I think we should also have signed Doig rather than Yilmaz for the same reason.
I’m not 100% on the doig over yilmaz myself. Yilmaz came with a much better reputation over Europe so I would say when he gets his chance(which should be soon) he’ll show he’s the superior player, but we need to wait and see till he plays.
 
Surely playing European football with us would have improved him like it done with Bassey plus our coaches should be improving players and identifying areas of improvement and working on them. Too many players come to us and don’t push on and improve.
but he's playing in europe every week, as in european style of football of a high standard, which I think would prepare him for other big leagues better than a few european games and the football in our league.I also think Bassey and Patterson were the exception rather than the rule for us
 
Hickey has went on to show he’s a great player. But again it’s this snobbery on here when talking about signing Scottish players. Go look at the Lewis Ferguson thread, peoples snobbery turning him down he’s not good enough etc, have they people seen our midfield options this season?

Ferguson is an upgrade over any option we have next to lundstram currently. Davis is too old, still decent to bring on if we’re 2 nil up etc, jack is injury prone, Kamara doesn’t want to be here and should’ve been sold at the end of the window. Arfield is a good sub player. Ferguson starts for us and probably plays a lot of games.
An indicator of poor squad management and a lack of investment rather than Lewis Ferguson's quality as a player.
 
He would have been a very good replacement for Ryan Jack.
I wasn't Ryan Jack's biggest admirer when he first came to Rangers.
Too rash, too limited and too unreliable.
Then Gerrard came along and turned Ryan into the perfect holding midfielder.
The limitations disappeared as he started to play within his skillset, he stopped going to ground and the rashness became a thing of the past and suddenly he was the first name on the team sheet, because he was Mr Reliable.
Sadly injuries have taken there toll.
 
Hickey is quality & won’t be at Brentford for long.

You could see he was a player even at Hearts, he was starting games & looking comfortable at 16/17.

Some folk don’t have a clue & are blinded by snobbery & bias.
 
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I wouldn't disagree with those who have pointed out our apparent reluctance to sign SPL players
However it is also worth remembering that most SPL clubs are reluctant to sell to us
It's been going on for years - & if anything it's got worse recently
 
Dis I read somewhere that Man City were interested in him?

Would be great to get Scottish players playing at that level.

It's about time we started producing great players again.
 
He's a strange one for me, Hickey

Obviously rated by coaches in the game, but every time I watch him he seems to do very little. I've never seen him do something and thought 'that was top drawer'.
 
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