Rangers transfer news: Club holds key January meeting and expects 'fairly active' window

The Ibrox club has been criticised for its summer recruitment - the first under current owners Andrew Cavenagh and 49ers Enterprises. Rangers brought in 14 new players for then head coach Russell Martin to work with, only to suffer a catastrophic start to the season that cost Martin his job in early October.

Thelwell himself has come under fire for some of the deals that Rangers have brokered, in particular the £8.5million outlay for Everton striker Youssef Chermiti, who has scored one goal in 13 appearances since arriving in Govan.

Rangers have spent in the region of £20m on new players, but Thelwell expects more to arrive when the transfer window opens at the beginning of 2026 - and revealed Rohl will be able to give the green light to any business.

“You’ve probably got a couple of days grace after any transfer window finishes, but then the work really starts in earnest and that begins with the review and evaluation of the work that you’ve done so far,” said Thelwell. “What did we do well in the window? What did we not do so well? What can we learn from what we did or what we didn’t do? And then use that information and that intelligence to take us forwards.

“We spent a couple of weeks allowing Danny the opportunity to evaluate the group and review the players that we’ve currently got in the squad. We’ve had a big meeting this week to sit down and talk about his feelings around the group so far and what he’s learned about them and also areas that we both think that we can improve and then going forward we’ll use that information plus the information from the owners and other sources to start to plan for January and we do expect to be fairly active.

Rohl will have final say

“It’s probably an important point to make that whilst I and others will do a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure we get in a space where we bring targets to the table that we think could improve the group, it really is about Danny having the final say in these moments.

“It’s important as a sporting director that you don’t bring players that the head coach doesn’t want to sign off on so it very much is about us working together with, in this instance, Danny having a final say.

“It’s never easy for a head coach or a manager to come into a situation like Danny has, where you haven’t had the pre-season, you come in at the start of the season, straight into a game within 48 hours - and especially the games that he’s had to deal with so far. A couple of European games and then also a semi-final and then also some very tough league games. I thought he’s done really well.

“Him and his staff are very good people. They’ve got clear experience, they’ve got clear expertise, they’re working very hard with the players and they’re very clear about what they want the players to achieve.”

Rangers have won their past three Premiership matches under Rohl but are yet to pick up a point after four matches in the Europa League. They were also knocked out of the Premier Sports Cup by Celtic in the semi-finals.

“I think we’ve made a good start, albeit we’ve not done as well as we would have liked in Europe so far,” continued Thelwell in an interview with Rangers TV. “But in reality, league form has improved and we’ve hit three wins on the bounce now and I feel like we’re getting into some sort of rhythm. Long may that continue.

“I still feel very confident. The situation is clearly that we felt that we weren’t going in the right direction previously and so unfortunately we had to make that change. I think we’ve changed for an individual who’s got very good experience despite his young years and I think he’s proven that with some of the things that we’re seeing on the pitch.

“I think there’s a clear difference in terms of the way in which we’re playing at the moment and fundamentally that’s leading to getting some good results.”