Much is made of the player trading model that Rangers have contrived to make a hash of in recent years.
Time and again, they have failed to cash in on their biggest assets by hanging on to them for too long.
And the buying of players hasn’t been done with the kind of joined-up thinking needed to strengthen the club long term.
Few will quibble with the signing of Hearts captain Lawrence Shankland, who is expected to agree a two-year deal in the days ahead.
He is the best striker in Scotland, a lifelong Rangers supporter and he knows the Premiership inside out, which minimises the risk of his purchase.
But the timing of his move along the M8 is a reminder of Rangers’ adhoc approach to buying and selling players under successive managers.
Lawrence Shankland is understood to have agreed terms and will seal his Ibrox move this week
If there had been a long-standing recruitment plan at Ibrox, they would not have waited until now to sign a 30-year old who doesn’t have long left at his peak.
They would have done it 12 months ago, when he was available as a free agent, or better still identified his potential three seasons before that, as Hearts did in 2022.
Instead, the Ibrox club spent upwards of £8million on Youssef Chermiti and £3-4m on Bojan Miovski last summer — nobody’s idea of value for money.
As Rangers toiled under Russell Martin and Danny Rohl last season, Shankland was inspiring his Hearts team to finish eight points above them. He scored four goals in three wins against the Ibrox side.
Still, better late than never as Rangers set about trying to put in place a better transfer policy, one in which more respect is paid to Scottish players.
Rohl cannot be blamed for the mistakes of his predecessors and, if the board are learning that recruitment need not be rocket science, here is a sensible signing that ticks all the boxes.
By taking advantage of a release clause that is reported to be in Shankland’s Hearts contract, Rangers are also moving to weaken one of their biggest rivals.
Shankland has been a thorn in the side of Rangers on many occasions in recent seasons
And boy is this a serious blow to Hearts at the end of nightmare week in which their historic title challenge came up cruelly short.
They can claim all they like that this is ‘just the start’ under power-broker Tony Bloom, but the loss of Shankland to a side who finished below them in the table is a reminder of where they are in the food chain.
As Shankland packs his bags, so too is Cammy Devlin weighing up a possible departure. The out-of-contract Australia international has been linked with a move to Major League Soccer.
Defender Craig Halkett is injured long-term, Claudio Braga will surely attract bids this summer and already there are doubts as to whether Hearts can repeat what they did last season.
Of course, defying the odds is gambler Bloom’s speciality: identify undervalued players, sell them on for a healthy profit and watch the club grow as you rinse and repeat.
Midfielder Cammy Devlin could also be on the move from Hearts, which would be a huge blow
It has worked for him at Union Saint-Gilloise and at Brighton, but will it work for him at Hearts, where progress now means winning the Scottish championship?
Never again will Celtic and Rangers be as collectively weak as they were last season, when Hearts’ data-based signings came up trumps and the stars looked set to align.
That they almost pulled it off was a tribute to Bloom and his player-trading expertise, but the real test of Jamestown Analytics lies ahead. The challenge now is to do it again. And again.
Football is full of clubs outperforming wealthier opponents on one-off occasions. Hearts were heroic in doing it over most of a season. To do it indefinitely defies logic.
Who knows? Maybe Bloom does have the knowhow to match the Old Firm over an extended period, but the sale of Shankland, for — at best — a nominal fee, makes you wonder. His move to Ibrox is a boost for Rangers, but an even bigger blow to Hearts.
