Building the New Ibrox: Inside Rangers’ Pre-Season as Derek McInnes Shapes His First Squad
Somewhere in Spain, on a training pitch shielded from prying eyes, Rangers played out a distinctly low-key 1-1 draw with South African side Kaizer Chiefs. There were no live cameras, no ticketed crowd, and no result that will be remembered beyond this week. And yet, in its own quiet way, the fixture told a bigger story than any of the eye-catching transfer headlines Rangers have generated this summer. It was the moment four of Derek McInnes’s new signings finally pulled on the shirt together, the clearest evidence yet of how a squad reshaped almost from scratch is beginning to take physical form.
Findlay Curtis’s late equaliser, cancelling out a Kaizer Chiefs goal in the 77th minute, will barely register in the history books. Lawrence Shankland’s introduction from the bench in the 70th minute will matter a great deal more, marking the first appearance in a Rangers shirt for a striker signed specifically to solve a problem that has dogged the club for several seasons: a lack of a reliable, prolific focal point in behind whom the rest of the team can be built.
On the surface, this was simply Rangers’ third closed-door pre-season fixture, following earlier low-profile outings against Raith Rovers and Dunfermline. In practice, it offered the clearest picture yet of how McInnes intends to use his squad depth once competitive football resumes. The head coach rotated heavily across the two halves, fielding what amounted to two distinct teams and giving himself the maximum possible information before the serious business of the Premiership begins.
The first-half XI carried the clearest signal of McInnes’s thinking. Young goalkeeper Rydnn Maguire started behind a back line of Dujon Sterling, Tuur Rommens, Ross McCrorie and Ben Godfrey — a defensive unit that blends academy promise, continental experience and Premier League pedigree in a way that would have been unrecognisable at Ibrox twelve months ago. Dan Neil, handed the captain’s armband for the occasion, anchored a midfield alongside Tochi Chukwuani, Mohamed Diomande and Oliver Antman, while Youssef Chermiti and Ryan Naderi were tasked with leading the line.
That McCrorie and Godfrey were both selected in the opening XI, alongside a captaincy nod for Neil on his first outing in Rangers colours, hints at where McInnes’s early trust is being placed among his summer recruits. McCrorie’s return to Ibrox carries particular significance. Re-signed from Bristol City to fill the considerable void left by James Tavernier’s departure, McCrorie previously spent time under McInnes at Aberdeen as a young player looking to prove himself away from Ibrox. Now the roles have reversed: it is McInnes who has brought him back to Glasgow, older, more experienced, and — in his own words on completing the move — living out a boyhood dream he had turned down interest from elsewhere in English football to fulfil.
The second half told a different story, one about competition for places rather than the established pecking order. Mason Munn, Manny Fernandez, Clinton Nsiala, Nedim Bajrami and Bojan Miovski were all introduced at the break, with Bajrami coming closest to adding a second Rangers goal when his effort cannoned back off the post. For fringe players whose long-term Ibrox futures remain uncertain, minutes like these are not simply about match fitness — they are auditions, the last opportunity to make a case for inclusion before McInnes finalises his thinking on which of last season’s squad have a role to play under the new regime and which do not.
Notably absent from the matchday squad entirely was new signing Cammy Devlin, who remains on holiday following international duty with Australia at the World Cup — a reminder that, even as pre-season friendlies roll on, several of Rangers’ most significant summer arrivals are still to be fully assimilated into the group.
Devlin’s absence from the Kaizer Chiefs fixture should not obscure the significance of his arrival. Confirmed on a two-year deal with the option of a further year, subject to international clearance, Devlin becomes Rangers’ sixth summer signing and the third member of last season’s Hearts squad — after Shankland and McInnes himself — to make the switch from Tynecastle to Ibrox.
The Sydney-born midfielder’s route to Scottish football has been a winding one, progressing through Sutherland Sharks and Western Sydney Wanderers before senior football with Sydney FC in the A-League and Asian Champions League, then two years with Wellington Phoenix in New Zealand before Hearts came calling in 2021. Across five years and more than 150 appearances in maroon, Devlin established himself as a central figure in Gorgie, and was instrumental last season as Hearts recorded the highest points tally in the club’s Scottish Premiership history — a campaign that ultimately ended in painful fashion, pipped to the title by Celtic on the final day.
That near-miss, and the failure to agree extended terms at Tynecastle, opened the door for McInnes to bring a player he knows intimately to Ibrox on a free transfer. Speaking after the move was completed, Devlin described the switch as an honour and a privilege, adding that he was fully aware of the size of the club he was joining after his time in Scottish football. McInnes, for his part, was unequivocal in his praise, describing Devlin’s levels of consistency under him at Hearts as “superb” and labelling him the type of player every manager wants in his team — someone, crucially, who already knows the demands of the Scottish Premiership and will not be caught off guard by anything the division throws at him.
With Devlin joining Shankland, McCrorie, Godfrey, Dan Neil and Ivor Pandur as confirmed arrivals, and further midfield business — the pursuit of Partizan Belgrade’s Vanja Dragojevic and Tromso’s Jens Hjerto-Dahl — still rumbling on in the background, McInnes’s rebuild is beginning to take on real definition. What started as a squad in need of wholesale surgery is steadily being remodelled around a spine of players either already familiar to the new head coach or signed specifically because they fit the identity he wants to build.
If the on-field business has dominated the headlines, one of the more emotionally resonant pieces of business this summer has taken place behind the scenes. Allan McGregor, the club’s all-time record appearance-maker in goal, has returned to Ibrox on a permanent basis as lead goalkeeping coach, replacing Sal Bibbo and taking charge of the club’s entire goalkeeping infrastructure.
McGregor’s connection to Rangers needs little introduction to anyone who has followed the club over the past two decades. Across two spells spanning sixteen years, he made more than 500 appearances for Rangers, won thirteen major honours, and helped the club reach two European finals before retiring as a player in 2023. His route back into coaching had already begun in February 2025, when he joined Barry Ferguson’s interim backroom staff following the dismissal of Philippe Clement — a short-term arrangement that has now, roughly eighteen months later, been converted into a permanent role under McInnes.
McGregor has been candid about how the move came together, revealing that he was “shocked” to be offered the position and admitted it took him some time to get back to chief executive Jim Gillespie with an answer. Now installed, he will oversee a goalkeeping department that includes new number one Ivor Pandur, along with Liam Kelly, Mason Munn and Rydnn Maguire. Pandur, signed for a reported £6 million from Hull City, is yet to link up fully with his new teammates; McGregor has explained that the delay is a deliberate decision to give the Croatian international extra rest following a long campaign that included Championship play-off final involvement with Hull and subsequent World Cup duty. He is expected to join the squad at their Spanish training camp in the coming days.
The appointment fits a broader pattern in how McInnes has constructed his backroom team, which also includes Neil McCann, Billy Dodds, Paul Sheerin and Alan Archibald — a coaching staff assembled with a deliberately strong Scottish core, mirroring the identity McInnes appears to be trying to build into the playing squad as well. McGregor’s own framing of the return captured the significance he attaches to it: everyone, he said, knows what the club means to him, and having the opportunity to help Rangers “in the present and future” is a privilege he does not take lightly. He has also made clear that the standards he will demand from Pandur and the club’s younger goalkeepers will be every bit as exacting as those he held himself to as a player.
Among the more intriguing subplots of Rangers’ pre-season has been the growing conversation around the long-term captaincy of the club. With James Tavernier’s future increasingly uncertain following his exit and Ross McCrorie now occupying a role similar to the one Tavernier once filled, attention has turned to Tuur Rommens as a potential long-term leader at Ibrox.
The Belgian left-back, signed from Westerlo for around £3 million in January, wasted little time establishing himself as a first-team regular, and has already shown leadership qualities beyond his years — a trait that was flagged repeatedly during his breakthrough performances last season, including a man-of-the-match display and matchwinning goal away at St Mirren, during which he ranked first among his teammates for key passes, expected assists and successful crosses. That performance did as much as any statistic to convince supporters and pundits alike that Rommens possesses the temperament to eventually wear the armband on a permanent basis.
His presence in the starting back line against Kaizer Chiefs, alongside three of Rangers’ most significant summer arrivals, only reinforces the sense that Rommens is now viewed as an established, trusted piece of McInnes’s defensive plans rather than simply a promising January addition still finding his feet. Whether the captaincy conversation develops further this season will likely depend on how the Tavernier situation ultimately resolves, but Rommens’s early involvement suggests McInnes already has significant faith in him as a senior voice within the squad.
A summer defined by incoming transfer activity has inevitably also produced its share of departures, and Rangers’ pre-season trip to Spain has offered some clarity on which fringe and out-of-favour players are being moved on as McInnes reshapes the squad in his own image.
Centre-back John Souttar appears to be the most notable case. Despite agreeing a one-year contract extension as recently as February, Souttar struggled for regular game time as last season wore on and was left out of the travelling squad for the pre-season camp in Spain altogether — a decision widely interpreted as confirmation that his four-year Ibrox career is coming to an end, with interest already registered from clubs in England. Notably, Souttar was part of Scotland’s World Cup squad this summer but did not play a single minute at the tournament, a further sign of his diminished standing even at international level. Rangers are known to be targeting further defensive reinforcement, particularly on the left side of central defence, with Souttar’s expected exit freeing up both squad space and wage budget to facilitate that business.
He was not the only notable absentee. Connor Barron has been managing a minor injury complaint that limited him to a single training session in pre-season, though he has since travelled out to Spain to join the group having seen a specialist in London. Elsewhere, several of the club’s younger and fringe players — including Pauk Nsio, Zander Hutton, Calum Adamson and Rydnn Maguire — have all been included in the travelling squad, giving McInnes further opportunity to assess academy and development players against the backdrop of first-team training sessions before finalising his plans for the rest of the window.
Manny Fernandez, who featured in the second half against Kaizer Chiefs, remains another player whose long-term future at the club is the subject of external interest, with reports over recent weeks suggesting clubs elsewhere in Europe are monitoring his situation. His introduction alongside several other fringe names in the second half of Saturday’s game will likely be viewed, at least in part, as a final opportunity to state his case for retention before any decisions are made.
Rangers’ pre-season schedule is now entering its final phase before competitive football returns. Having already played out closed-door fixtures against Raith Rovers, Dunfermline and now Kaizer Chiefs, the squad will return to Ibrox later this month for a pair of more high-profile friendlies against Saint-Etienne and West Ham United — fixtures that should offer a considerably sterner and more visible test of where McInnes’s rebuilt squad currently stands, played out in front of the Ibrox support for the first time this summer.
Beyond those warm-up fixtures lies the Scottish Premiership season opener, away to newly promoted Dundee United on 31 July. It is a fixture that will arrive with genuine scrutiny attached, not because of the opponent, but because of everything that has preceded it: a new head coach, six confirmed signings, a restructured goalkeeping department, at least two major midfield pursuits still unresolved, and a first wave of squad departures already underway. Derek McInnes has had less than two months to stamp his identity on a Rangers squad that finished last season empty-handed and second-best to Celtic. The behind-closed-doors draw with Kaizer Chiefs will not be remembered for its scoreline, but as one of the last quiet building blocks before Rangers’ new era is judged in earnest, against Dundee United, in front of a Premiership table that will not lie for long.
