You can set your watch by the familiar sights of a summer; the holiday plans begin, the long clammy nights seem to go on forever and everyone becomes a tennis expert for a fortnight.
But there is an ever habitual occurrence now becoming synonymous with the summer and that is the negotiations between veteran defender David Weir and Rangers over a new one year contract. Groundhog day is here again.
In the summer of 07/08 he was given a one year deal. In the summer of 08/09 he was again given a one year contract. It looks like the form will be repeated once more, as this week Weir will check into Murray Park to begin pre-season training and conclude the small matter of another 12 month contract.
Weir came to Rangers as quick fix, a short stop gap. It worked. Now, three seasons later, the 39 year old will be heading into the new season with the prospect of a fresh challenge from our rivals domestically and a Champions League campaign.
Weir has been a fantastic servant. He is a great communicator and on-field leader, helping his fellow defensive partners improve under his stewardship. Carlos Cuellar, Kirk Broadfoot and Madjid Bougherra all compliment Weir on his knowledge and ability to impart that learning on others. This has proved invaluable. It is clear that he has very bright future as a coach and he already has his eye on this aspect of the game as he looks to complete his badges with the S.F.A. Not only is his organisation, positional sense and heading ability of a good standard but he also showed that he was an immaculate captain as he lifted the SPL title last season along with the Scottish Cup.
However with an ageing defender who is not noted with pace, this has implications with the way the team plays overall. Naturally we have to play a deeper defensive line, to avoid anyone getting in behind and outpacing him. This then means the midfield also drops deeper to offer protection, which creates a larger gap between midfield and attack and, considering we don’t have anyone who can travel with the ball or break with pace, this nullifies our attack. Unfortunately his ball retention is poor, he is often wasteful and tends to simply kick it the way he is facing. At Ibrox we have a lot of the ball and often our defence will get time on the ball to pick a pass. Bougherra is very comfortable with the ball so he offers us another dimension. Needless to say, having one player who can do this isn’t as good as two, so the team has to adapt to Weir playing.
As Weir’s family stays down south, he may only stay on if he is guaranteed to be playing in the majority of the games. The question we have to ask is, do we continue adapting our game and way of playing to suit Weir and look to continue playing deep and conservatively while keeping on a fine servant and captain?
He sure has packed in a lot in his Rangers career; 1 SPL title, 2 Scottish Cups, 1 League Cup and a UEFA Cup Final. Not bad going at all. As a man and as a footballer I respect him highly, but as we see the contract situation again arise this summer one must ask: will it be the last?