Kai Watson: The Old Firm in the Transfer Window
Kai Watson 
It's fair to say that neither Rangers nor Celtic fans have come out of the transfer window being positive that they've improved on what they had last season, although Celtic remain favourites with the betting sites to retain their title.
Free Bets Scottish football expert Kai Watson has taken a closer look at how the transfer window went for the two Glasgow giants.
When it comes to Rangers, they lost Vaclav Cerny after he returned to Wolfsburg then sold Cyriel Dessers and Hamza Igamane, between the three of them that’s 55 goals and 12 assists that need to be replaced, did they do that?
In terms of forward options, plenty arrived in the likes of Djeidi Gassama, Oliver Antman, Mikey Moore (loan), Bojan Miovski and Youssef Chermiti. Gassama and Antman had good seasons last year, getting 8G/1A and 7G/17A respectively, in terms of the strikers though, Miovski scored 4 in 24 and Chermiti hasn’t scored for Everton, whilst barely playing, since he joined two years ago.
On paper, I think the wings are stronger with those additions and the emergence of Findlay Curtis but it remains to be seen whether Chermiti, Danilo and Miovski are enough to replace the goals that Dessers and Igamane scored.
There’s also now a chance that, at times, Rangers full back four will be loan players, albeit new centre back signing Derek Cornelius has an option to buy at the end of the season. Max Aarons, Nasser Djiga and Jayden Meghoma have all featured regularly since arriving and none of them have the option to buy at the end of their loan deals.
Big changes in midfield have seen Thelo Aasgaard, Lyall Cameron and Joe Rothwell join with former Dundee man Cameron, perhaps surprisingly, being the most impressive so far. Rangers did a lot of business this summer and brought in over £20m but a lot of work still needs to be done.
Celtic, on the other hand, didn’t do a lot of business this summer. Their marquee signing was the return of hero Kieran Tierney on a free after leaving Arsenal. Their other signings, with their reported fees via Transfermarkt were;
Callum Osmand - Fulham - Free
Benjamin Nygren - Nordsjaelland - £1.3m
Ross Doohan - Aberdeen - Free
Hayato Inamura - Albirex Niigata - £260k
Shin Yamada - Kawasaki Frontale - £1.5m
Jahmai Simpson-Pusey - Manchester City (loan)
Michel Ange Balikwisha - Antwerp - £4.5m
Marcelo Saracchi - Boca Juniors (loan)
Sebastian Tounetki - Hammarby - £5.5m
Around just over £13m spent, which seems a lot but it’s nothing when you consider that they received well over £25m for the likes of Idah, Kuhn, Tilio and Lagerbielke. That is why the Celtic fans are nearing protest and why they’re so furious with the board, the money is there and they’ve spent some but the recruitment has just been really, really strange.
Celtic have Maeda and Jota for the left wing so bringing in one player until Jota is back could make sense but spending £10m on two in Balikwisha and Tounetki just doesn’t make sense.
With Jota costing around £8.5m last season, that’s nearly £20m spent on three left wingers in two windows! Not replacing Idah leaves the only recognised strikers as;
Shin Yamada
Johnny Kenny
Callum Osmand
They have been linked with moves for the likes of Patrick Bamford, Kelechi Iheanacho and Emmanuel Dennis, as all are free agents they now have time to explore their options but are any of them enough?
It’s mind boggling to sell your starting striker, who you paid £9m for last summer, to not replace him with a less risky option than an out of form/out of fitness player from the EPL (Iheanacho being a former EPL striker).
Who do you think came out of the window the best? Did either side improve their squad from last season or will we have to wait and see?
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