RabiuRangers manager makes new signings appeal after Dundee United draw
Derek McInnes tonight stated that Rangers need to get more new signings in quickly after the Ibrox club were held to a 1-1 draw by Dundee United in their opening William Hill Premiership match of the new season on his competitive debut as manager.
McInnes started four players who moved to Glasgow this summer on Tayside this evening – goalkeeper Ivor Pandur, centre-half Ben Godfrey, midfielder Cammy Devlin and striker Lawrence Shankland.
Ross McCrorie and Dan Neil also came on during the second half and were unable to prevent the visitors from dropping two points in their first league fixture of the 2026/27 campaign. However, McInnes, who will take Rangers to Poland next week to play against Jagiellonia Bialystok in a Europa League qualifier, is keen to strengthen his squad even further and stressed that he wants to bring in more new recruits soon.
“We’ve got to improve in a lot of things,” he said. “The squad will improve as we go along through this month and the squad will look far stronger than we came into this window, with some new signings.“
But there are games that we’ve got to pay attention to and we’ve got games to deal with. I do think we’ll be better for having had that game. We’re still learning a bit about the squad. We’re all kind of learning on the job. But we want to make sure we’re picking up three points as we’re learning.
“We have got to quickly take the good from the game in terms of fitness. I like the character of the team, the determination of the team. I still expect better, but it’s those moments, those kind of quality signings along with the players that we’ve got in‑house improving, that makes me really confident that we’re going to have a strong season.“
I know the evidence today would suggest we’ve still got loads and loads to do and I get that, but I do think we have got enough to be encouraged about. But the new signings need to land pretty soon, I need to say that.
“Everybody’s worked hard to get the right players in and I appreciate the effort that’s been made, but we’ve got important games, important league games, important European games, and we’re just really trying to crank that up to try and get players in the building as quickly as possible.”
The Rangers’ players and manager felt they should have been awarded a corner kick in injury time and surrounded match official Nick Walsh to complain following the final whistle.
“I was thinking that,” said McInnes. “I don’t know. It just looked like a corner, even from the player’s reaction. But I shouldn’t have approached the ref on the pitch, I should’ve approached him in the referee room. But I told him that.”
