'No Positives' - David Tanner reacts as Rangers transfer exposed by big-money Celtic

Philippe Clement can’t take any positives after Rangers were beaten 3-0 by Celtic as the two sides’ differing transfer windows were laid bare, says David Tanner.

The talkSPORT broadcaster reacted to the latest Old Firm derby thrashing at Parkhead via X on 1 September to say that the Light Blues had been “completely and utterly outclassed”.

He also highlighted the fact that Brendan Rodgers still had multimillion pound summer buys to bring on when the game was already under control, while Clement’s budget signings failed to impress.

Tanner wrote: “The champions completely and utterly outclassed Rangers. And that was before Celtic’s big money signings came on. No positives for Clement and his bargain buys. New faces – same old story.”

Robin Propper and Jefte started for Rangers

The growing financial divide between the two sides of the Old Firm is no secret, and nor is the fact that the Gers squad is not where anyone would have hoped at the end of the transfer window.

Unfortunately it genuinely is hard to find anything much for Clement to cling to, despite the brave face he was trying to put on things after the game.

Harking back the 6-0 win over Ross County isn’t going to get very far when it has been followed up by another heavy defeat against your biggest rivals, although the Belgian didn’t have many options with what to say.

If he was brutally honest it might have been cathartic for the fans, and perhaps for the manager himself, for a short while.

But this squad already seems to shrink in on itself when the going gets tough so they might actually get worse if Clement turns on them.

It would be tempting to chalk the game up as a bad day at the office if it weren’t part of a pattern that has gone on for far too long, and fans won’t accept that narrative at this stage.

The manager does have to take responsibility for getting diminishing returns out of this side, and the players have to take a lot for giving off an air of defeat as soon as there is adversity in front of them.

But when the Gers XI was a story of low-budget trading, transfer misses, and players the club were unable to offload this summer, while Celtic were able to bring on £11million Arne Engles [Sky Sports, 30 August] and £9.5m Adam Idah [Sky Sports, 15 August] when already cruising at 2-0 the outcome is not such a surprise.

Robin Propper cost £1.5m this summer [Daily Record, 2 August], Vaclav Cerny is on loan, and Jefte cost £763,000 for 80% of his rights [Vene Casagrande, 24 May], while the likes of James Tavernier, Rabbi Matondo and Cyriel Dessers were among a host of players linked to exits this summer that stayed.

The more impressive signings in recent windows are all free transfers – Jack Butland, Dujon Sterling, Connor Barron – and even they were hardly in top form at Parkhead.

In other Rangers news, a higher transfer fee has emerged since a permanent exit on Deadline Day.

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