With this summer's transfer window now less than a week away from slamming firmly shut, so City boss Peter Grant continued to re-shuffle his squad – one in from Rangers, one out and, potentially, facing Rangers tomorrow.
Ian Murray was officially unveiled as Grant's ninth signing of the summer this lunchtime as the 26-year-old 'Gers utility player compeleted his free transfer switch from Ibrox this morning.
The left-footed Scottish international joins – in no particular order – David Marshall, Matty Gilks, Jon Otsemobor, David Strihavka, Jamie Cureton, Jimmy Smith, Darel Russell and Julien Brellier on a one-year Carrow Road deal and is expected to go straight into the squad for tomorrow's trip to Hull City.
Heading off in the opposite direction is Ryan Jarvis who has agreed to join Scottish Premier League side Kilmarnock on a half-season loan. He, too, is expected to feature tomorrow – against Rangers.
In what has been a busy summer for the Glasgow club, the nature of Murray's exit may have much to do with the new Under-21 substitutes ruling currently in force in the SPL.
In a bid to encourage the next generation of Scottish internationals to come through, every SPL club must include three Under-21 players in their match-day squads.
For a club of Rangers' size and ambitions, that ruling ensures that players of Murray's ilk – and at 26-years-old – simply don't get the chance to be involved.
“We have 27 players and it is too big a squad. The Under-21 ruling means it is hard to give players games or even sit them on the bench,” Gers' boss Walter Smith told the Rangers AGM yesterday.
“We would like to add another one or two players before the end of the transfer window but to do that we will have to rid ourselves of one or two others.”
Hence their decision to allow Murray to seek pastures new on a free with the one-time Hibs skipper having just one year left on his current Ibrox deal.
Smith is one of the leading critics of the Under-21 ruling as a number of senior clubs look to get the Scottish FA to over-turn the ruling.
“I feel that the under-21 ruling pushes you to put a young player in there and lets them think they've achieved a certain level without them actually doing anything to achieve that level,” Smith told Rangers News earlier this summer.
“We've had young players come in to our team over the years – Barry Ferguson, Charlie Miller and Steven Pressley, for example – and every one of them has done so regardless of their age.
“In the next few years I'm sure we will have several young players here pushing their way into the first team. They won't do so because they are under 21 but rather because they are good footballers,” said the former Scotland and Everton chief.
What is interesting is whether or not that same ruling may have influenced Celtic's thinking on David Marshall's exit – at 22, the No2 Bhoys keeper would have been one of the 'over-age' players left on Gordon Strachan's bench this season for as long as Artur Boruc kept his No1 jersey.
But Strachan may well have opted to have four, older outfield players up his sleeve – hence leaving Marshall too old to be part of Strachan's match-day squad.
“That should be the criteria for picking a team, not because of someone's age,” added Smith, speaking to Rangers News.
“A lot of younger players are getting involved in first-team games far too easily simply because of their age and not because they're making the demands of football. That's wrong.
“It's a nonsense that a player gets his involvement due to his age rather than his ability.”
All of which comes as a blessing for clubs south of the border – especially those, like Norwich, with long-standing links into the SPL scene.
As for Jarvis' departure north, the England Youth international has long been ear-marked for a second loan exit as his path to regular first team football gets cluttered by the likes of Cureton, Strihavka, a fit-again Chris Brown, Dion Dublin and blossoming teenager Chris Martin.
Killie boss Jim Jefferies first caught sight of the Fakenham-born 21-year-old in the Milk Cup youth football tournament in Northern Ireland when Jarvis was at the peak of his England Under-16 powers.
The name stuck. And after having benefit from a three-month spell at Leyton Orient at the end of last season, Jarvis Snr now has the chance to flourish in a school of even harder knocks, the SPL.
“Jim Duffy speaks very highly of the lad and I remember him from the Milk Cup a few years back when I watched him score the winner for Norwich against Hearts.
“These things stick in your mind and on the occasions we've watched him recently he's done well,” said the Killie chief.
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