Mills: Michael Rankine all set to sign for Aldershot

11:50am Wednesday 11th May 2011 in Sport Photograph of the Author By Steve Carroll, Sports reporter

Michael Rankine Michael Rankine

York City boss Gary Mills has revealed striker Michael Rankine will move to Aldershot.

Mills said the big forward told him on Monday he would be going to the League Two outfit – leaving the Minstermen boss to say Rankine was now out of his plans.

“We made him an offer around Christmas,” Mills said. “He turned that down. It came to light that a League club were chasing him so I had prepared myself for what was going to happen. You have to move on.

“The position of striker is something I have to work on. Ranks has gone to Aldershot and it is time to move on.”

Meanwhile, defender Daniel Parslow added to his trophy haul at the club’s awards night, held at Pitchside Bar at Bootham Crescent. The Press Player of the Year picked up the Billy Fenton Clubman of the Year and the Player of the Year trophy from Harrogate Minstermen and York City Supporters Club.

Mills said: “From the first day I came to the club he has been exceptional – not only in his performances but in the way he conducts himself. He thoroughly deserves it.”

James Meredith was the winner of the Players’ Player of the Year, while Rankine won the Golden Boot award for his campaign tally of 14 goals. Neil Barrett was awarded CPP Community Player of the Year. Tom Platt got the Young Player of the Year prize.

Comments(38)

York Manor says...
12:11pm Wed 11 May 11

Cant say i am too surprised, lets move on and get a striker who can hit the back of the net and form a good partnership with Jamie Reed, good luck to Rankin, but i feel a good move for City and promotion next season.

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PDH says...
12:17pm Wed 11 May 11

He has not yet signed for aldershot according to them but without a doubt he will. Good luck, you leave having given 100%, did right to look after yourself now a league player, signing on fee and no doubt more wages, thanks for your time with us and will always be welcomed back.
Crawley are after Donaldson.

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Glossy Onions says...
12:22pm Wed 11 May 11

Does it say something that GM hasn't thanked him or wished him well for the future?

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alimount says...
12:28pm Wed 11 May 11

Why didn't Mills just tell Ranks that he wouldn't be offered anything else instead of playing the "I had prepared myself for what was going to happen" card. Good on Ranks for getting a FL club. Poor man-management by Mills and frankly quite rude for not being up front with him sooner.

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London_Exile says...
12:40pm Wed 11 May 11

alimount wrote:
Why didn't Mills just tell Ranks that he wouldn't be offered anything else instead of playing the "I had prepared myself for what was going to happen" card. Good on Ranks for getting a FL club. Poor man-management by Mills and frankly quite rude for not being up front with him sooner.
How can you possibly establish from the above passage that GM did not tell Ranks he wldn't be offered anything else? Conversations are constantly going back and forth between management & playing staff and I wld find it hard to believe GM wld have left Ranks hanging. GM has been nothing but professional & upfront throughout his tenure. A baseless and rash comment.

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Eric Style says...
12:45pm Wed 11 May 11

quite rude from ranks for putting in some pretty poor performances at end of season!

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Head of Bomber Command says...
12:51pm Wed 11 May 11

London_Exile is quite correct with his last comment alimount IMO.

Really don't think GM wanted Ranks looking at the bigger picture. He want's from a forward what they are supposed to give, GOALS and plenty of them.

He will most likely have made his mind up on Ranks after he turned down the contract and the penalty miss at Kettering ,which I don't think we really recovered from, will have cemented him going. It's only my opinion and I doubt anyone else's.

Any way to Michael. Good effort Ranks and at times you were a bloody handful for the opposition defence. Bolton for one.

Good luck to you at Aldershot.

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duffy says...
12:54pm Wed 11 May 11

alimount wrote:
Why didn't Mills just tell Ranks that he wouldn't be offered anything else instead of playing the "I had prepared myself for what was going to happen" card. Good on Ranks for getting a FL club. Poor man-management by Mills and frankly quite rude for not being up front with him sooner.
Rankine was offered a new contract in January and turned it down. The club can't be held to ransom and has the right to look at other options before deciding if they want to go back to him with another offer.
Rankine looked elsewhere which is the right of every player out of contract and moved on. He was not exactly held back.

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rogue84 says...
12:57pm Wed 11 May 11

I think York have conducted this quite well to be honest, offered him a deal with plenty of time left in the season, he turned it down.....what else were they supposed to do? be held to ransome by a player who's smaller than the club??
I am sure Ranks wasn't to blame either in this though because he's been a good servant to the club and scored some sensational goals. Cambridge in the cup, Wimbledon this season etc.
Good luck at Aldershot, lets hope we meet in League 2 in 15 months time and you'll get a standing ovation.

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Head of Bomber Command says...
12:59pm Wed 11 May 11

Fair point that Duffy.

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Robert Davro says...
1:09pm Wed 11 May 11

Thank you for everything Michael. As I said on another thread, I will always remember your goal against AFC Wimbledon! All the best at Aldershot. It'll be even more interesting to see who Gary gets in now.

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OLD - HEAD says...
1:26pm Wed 11 May 11

I am not surprised in the least by this latest statement, for I believe that Rankine was always going to leave at the end of the season. Towards the end of the season Gary Mills seemed to be selecting his team without Rankine as if he was preparing for his departure. Michael Rankine has had a decent season at York City, and it was obvious that his agent would be trying to get him a better deal. He will be a big loss but nowhere near as bad as it was when we lost Clayton Donaldson and Andy Bishop.

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yns1988 says...
2:32pm Wed 11 May 11

If your reading this Ranks all i can say is good look pal, you have been fantastic and the most commited player on the pitch we have had in years, i think mills has this one wrong as you always need a heskey to partner a rooney... im genuinly gutted that ranks has left everytime he scored it was fantastic he reacted as every goal was a cup winning goal .. GOOD LUCK MATE HOPE YOU COME BACK ONE DAY.....

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yns1988 says...
2:41pm Wed 11 May 11

Mills is a great manager but even the greats make mistakes and this will be costly, bad decision!!! i just dont believe we have let him go........ stupid... owell will be keeping look out for ranks scoring goals as i still do clayton, both stay in memories of city fans..... imagine the 2 togethor (JESUS)...

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spockboy says...
2:56pm Wed 11 May 11

His goal scoring average it you take out the penalty's last year was very poor for a forward.
Not sad to see him him go and feel his temperament in the last few games,plus his dropping out of 1st eleven cost us a place in the play off's.
Hope he does well.
The goal against Cambridge away in FA cup was a great memory.

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TheBurton says...
2:58pm Wed 11 May 11

Very lazy player towards the last half of the season. If the game wasnt going his way he would spit his dummy out and everyone was everyone elses fault.
Sure he scored 14 goals but only 8 were from open play. I wish him the best of luck though at Aldershot and hope he does well

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Fat Harry says...
3:03pm Wed 11 May 11

yns1988 wrote:
Mills is a great manager but even the greats make mistakes and this will be costly, bad decision!!! i just dont believe we have let him go........ stupid... owell will be keeping look out for ranks scoring goals as i still do clayton, both stay in memories of city fans..... imagine the 2 togethor (JESUS)...
Have I slipped into a parallel universe where Rankine scored thirty goals and we got promoted?
`
As others have pointed out, Ranks WAS offered a new contract and turned it down.
`
I hope he'll "click" with his new team mates at Aldershot and get loads of goals, but that never looked like happening at Bootham Crescent, did it?
`
Time to move on, and hope Mills is able to secure the services of an effective Conference striker.

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TheBurton says...
3:22pm Wed 11 May 11

TheBurton wrote:
Very lazy player towards the last half of the season. If the game wasnt going his way he would spit his dummy out and everyone was everyone elses fault.
Sure he scored 14 goals but only 8 were from open play. I wish him the best of luck though at Aldershot and hope he does well
"and everything was everyone else's fault." My apologies with the bad grammer.

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yorkielass says...
3:24pm Wed 11 May 11

I am afraid Ranks was just never consistent enough for me. I would like Purcell to be given a chance alongside Reid with Tilly supplying him. Perhaps pre-season will see if that's a possibility.

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alimount says...
3:26pm Wed 11 May 11

So with Ranks and Gash, and Constantine and Purcell likely to being shown the door where will we get 3/4 new strikers from who can bang in 20 goals each? Will there be a Plan B when Reed has a barren run? Will we be able to mix it with the poor teams on rubbish pitches where the ball doesn't run and we need a target man? Mills talks well so lets hope he can deliver when it matters.

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RooBeck says...
3:36pm Wed 11 May 11

The manager now needs to identify two good strikers, together with a midfielder with an eye for goal and who are prepared to give of their best to York City FC and the Board should back him with the necessary finances, even if that means going a bit over budget. With the right players coming in, the rewards at the end of the season should make it worth their while. Rankine, could certainly be a handful and his physical presence would unsettle defences but it didn't happen often enough and that may not have altogether been his own fault. Good luck to him at Aldershot Town FC. Now is the time for City to look ahead and recruit some really effective goalscorers into the side for the 2011/12 season.

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Sir Alex says...
3:57pm Wed 11 May 11

Door now open for a target man and I would imagine it could well be Perry, although I'm not at all convinced that he is the right guy. Needs to work on his fitness if its him!

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The Panther says...
4:12pm Wed 11 May 11

I heard today that Tilly is off to Fleetwood (Same source as Gash/Charles rumour when they came up for contract talks). Dunno how I feel about that really, good player maybe 1 in 3 games? He's no Woolford though is he?

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cumoncity says...
4:35pm Wed 11 May 11

Ranks was the reason why we got so close to the play-offs and also the reason why we didn't make them. He was the only threat we had up front other than Reedy's goals and he stopped scoring when Ranks wasn't playing. Me thinks GM made a big mistake at the back end of the season but that was last season lets move on and see how good GM really is and for that matter Reedy also, I for one am not convinced but behind City all the way. Best of luck Ranks hopefully City will not need any Luck.

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cumoncity says...
4:36pm Wed 11 May 11

Ranks was the reason why we got so close to the play-offs and also the reason why we didn't make them. He was the only threat we had up front other than Reedy's goals and he stopped scoring when Ranks wasn't playing. Me thinks GM made a big mistake at the back end of the season but that was last season lets move on and see how good GM really is and for that matter Reedy also, I for one am not convinced but behind City all the way. Best of luck Ranks hopefully City will not need any Luck.

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circuitous route dorset says...
5:29pm Wed 11 May 11

alimount wrote:
So with Ranks and Gash, and Constantine and Purcell likely to being shown the door where will we get 3/4 new strikers from who can bang in 20 goals each? Will there be a Plan B when Reed has a barren run? Will we be able to mix it with the poor teams on rubbish pitches where the ball doesn't run and we need a target man? Mills talks well so lets hope he can deliver when it matters.
Wow -looking forward to 3 or 4 new strikers all scoring 20 each. If they do they'll each score far more than each of the ones going and we'll be untouchable. To be fair Gash and Ranks were never big finishers before they came to us and the point re Ranks efforts minus penalties is spot on (excuse the pun). Our "goals for" tally has not been anywhere near enough for years and we do need to discover a couple at least 20 plus strikers. What we have had did not get us up -so for me a move on is necessary. GM has done a good job so let's hope he continues to do so. I back his judgment on this and read in between the lines that he has firm plans.

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YcfcKeepingTheFaith says...
6:52pm Wed 11 May 11

Sorry to see you go ranks.

Feel it may be for the best for both sides though.

Hope you thrive at aldershot and that they appreciate you for everything that you are.

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uhtred says...
7:36pm Wed 11 May 11

Ranks was good at one thing - unsettling defences with his strength and directness and that worked to a degree in the BSP when he was in the mood for a battle. He did not have a good first touch and often lost the ball rather than holding it up for others, he had no composure in front of goal and as a consequence missed far more than he scored, however the ones he did score were admittedly often crackers. I hope he does well in the higher league but I would bet he is on the bench more often than not and will not be one for a fight in a losing team if Aldershot are not in the promotion hunt.
Too often his head went down when against a decent centre half. Nevertheless, he certainly entertained on the occasions when he was on song.
Better tell Aldershots penalty taker that Ranks may decide otherwise when they are next awarded a epenalty!

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yorkielass says...
7:49pm Wed 11 May 11

@ThePanther - re rumour that Tilly is signing for Fleetwood: Just checked with him, he says 'not signing anywhere till the gaffer gets back to me'.

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carterjason says...
10:16pm Wed 11 May 11

Rankine did a good job for City often playing as a lone striker.
But at the end of the day he didn't score enough goals, not on the end of balls into the box enough and seemed to go missing in a lot of games when it wasn't going his way.
At the end of the day we must bring in better and more consistent players, the team last season was lacking in fire power so this is a priority so why keep Till, Rankine, Carruthers and others when they just were not good enough.
The base of the team is good but lets give Mills a chance to bring in some new faces .

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RingRoadGooseParty says...
11:47pm Wed 11 May 11

lol at the guy who wants us to sign 4 strikers who get 20 goals each.

I've been a big fan of Rankine at York City and think its not fair to judge him on goals scored - especially as he's made so many goals this season.

I'm also a fan of the 4-5-1 formation we used. Although in later days it had its hiccups, don't forget that for most of the season the 4-5-1 with Rankine really worked!

I'd love to see it played next season if it's gonna be as successful... but we'd need a lone striker to play the role in a similar way to how Rankine did.

Of course, like everyone else, I'm massively excited to see what new strikers are gonna arrive at the club and want to see a 20-goal-a-season guy ... ( or even 4 lol )

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Tug job says...
8:39am Thu 12 May 11

circuitous route dorset wrote:
alimount wrote: So with Ranks and Gash, and Constantine and Purcell likely to being shown the door where will we get 3/4 new strikers from who can bang in 20 goals each? Will there be a Plan B when Reed has a barren run? Will we be able to mix it with the poor teams on rubbish pitches where the ball doesn't run and we need a target man? Mills talks well so lets hope he can deliver when it matters.
Wow -looking forward to 3 or 4 new strikers all scoring 20 each. If they do they'll each score far more than each of the ones going and we'll be untouchable. To be fair Gash and Ranks were never big finishers before they came to us and the point re Ranks efforts minus penalties is spot on (excuse the pun). Our "goals for" tally has not been anywhere near enough for years and we do need to discover a couple at least 20 plus strikers. What we have had did not get us up -so for me a move on is necessary. GM has done a good job so let's hope he continues to do so. I back his judgment on this and read in between the lines that he has firm plans.
Ha, ha, ha - when did we last have a regular 20 goals a season man? Brodie only managed more than 20 goals in a season for us once. I really cannot understand why people are having a go at Mills about Ranks leaving - he was offered a contract in January and turned it down, thereby signalling his intent to look for a better offer. That's his right and is part and parcel of football. The club cannot be expected to bankrupt itself to meet the wage demands of players. THe club wante dhim to stay in January, Ranks said no, so that's the end of it. Let's move on and look to the future.

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chalkytalky says...
8:59am Thu 12 May 11

He exceeded my expectations of him last season and definitely improved his touch and all round play. However as some people have pointed out his touch and finishing let him down at times. I was also unimpressed with the attitude he showed outwardly to team mates on the pitch when things weren't going well.
He could've scored for us in the playoff final last season too, how different could that have made the game? 6 yards out with the goal at his mercy.
Anyway hopefully it works out well for him when he moves and I'm confident that Millsy will bring the right players in to the club.

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Sir Alex says...
9:45am Thu 12 May 11

So, we still have Wrexham and Fleetwood. Neither of those concern me as being potentially better than us next season. In a couple of years time we'll probably be filing memories of Fleetwood in the Grays and Histon (amongst others) file. At least thet are an easy away game for me, and it also looks increasingly likely that Southport will survive at R&D's expense, so hopefully we can exorcise the memory of the 4 nil !!
Good luck to Wombles and Luton, you can't say its not the right final! Would be funny if Wombles won but probably better for us if it were Luton.

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alimount says...
12:14pm Thu 12 May 11

RingRoadGooseParty wrote:
lol at the guy who wants us to sign 4 strikers who get 20 goals each. I've been a big fan of Rankine at York City and think its not fair to judge him on goals scored - especially as he's made so many goals this season. I'm also a fan of the 4-5-1 formation we used. Although in later days it had its hiccups, don't forget that for most of the season the 4-5-1 with Rankine really worked! I'd love to see it played next season if it's gonna be as successful... but we'd need a lone striker to play the role in a similar way to how Rankine did. Of course, like everyone else, I'm massively excited to see what new strikers are gonna arrive at the club and want to see a 20-goal-a-season guy ... ( or even 4 lol )
You can laugh all you want but if strikers are judged on goals scored then getting rid of 4 must mean Mills has lined up 4 who can score 20+ a season, because only then would they be any better than what we've already got. As you rightly say he's made plenty of goals this season so why not just work on his distribution? You can't have 2 goal poachers, you have to have someone who will get to the second balls first and win the flick ons.
Anyway, look forward to seeing what Cloughie has up his sleeve.

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tomwillo1 says...
1:25pm Thu 12 May 11

WE NEED TO SIGN UP JACK LEHURAY AND OLLIE SOUTER FROM FULFORD, THEN CEMIL CINAR FROM TURKEY!!!

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Head of Bomber Command says...
1:30pm Thu 12 May 11

alimount wrote:
RingRoadGooseParty wrote: lol at the guy who wants us to sign 4 strikers who get 20 goals each. I've been a big fan of Rankine at York City and think its not fair to judge him on goals scored - especially as he's made so many goals this season. I'm also a fan of the 4-5-1 formation we used. Although in later days it had its hiccups, don't forget that for most of the season the 4-5-1 with Rankine really worked! I'd love to see it played next season if it's gonna be as successful... but we'd need a lone striker to play the role in a similar way to how Rankine did. Of course, like everyone else, I'm massively excited to see what new strikers are gonna arrive at the club and want to see a 20-goal-a-season guy ... ( or even 4 lol )
You can laugh all you want but if strikers are judged on goals scored then getting rid of 4 must mean Mills has lined up 4 who can score 20+ a season, because only then would they be any better than what we've already got. As you rightly say he's made plenty of goals this season so why not just work on his distribution? You can't have 2 goal poachers, you have to have someone who will get to the second balls first and win the flick ons. Anyway, look forward to seeing what Cloughie has up his sleeve.
You can't have 2 goal poachers, you have to have someone who will get to the second balls first and win the flick ons
??????????.

Flick on's!!!!!! 2nd ball!!!!!.

I would hope we had two players up front capable of winning the FIRST ball and put it in the back of the 'Onion Bag'

Crawley didn't take to the field with only one goal poacher, neither do Wimbledon, Luton, Fleetwood or Wrexham as far as I am aware.

Name me a team that is in the top five of their respective leagues who play every time with only one striker/poacher.

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OLD - HEAD says...
9:09pm Thu 12 May 11

I see on the Football Conference web-site that Aldershot are delighted to announce that Michael Rankine will be joining them from York City on July 1st. I would think that this has been a done deal for ages, so its now time for City to bring in his replacement. No use dwelling on Rankine now, its time to move on!

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