Doug Ward

Mon 3 January 2022 18:46, UK

Rangers are expected to sign a “promising” young player to replace Everton-bound Nathan Patterson, according to David Edgar.

Writing on the Heart & Hand Podcast’s official Twitter account on Tuesday afternoon, the club’s official media partner suggested that Giovanni van Bronckhorst wants to land a new back-up right-back to sit behind James Tavernier in his pecking order at Ibrox.

The Daily Record also reported on Tuesday that Patterson, 20, is in England to complete a medical with Everton, who are set to officially announce the Scotland international as their second signing of January in a deal worth up to £16million.

Edgar said: “I’d expect a young promising player as backup to replace Nathan [a] bit like [the Calvin] Bassey signing.”

Who could it be?

Edgar was replying to a tweet in which a Rangers fan asked whether Bologna’s Aaron Hickey could be brought in to replace Patterson.

However, as the Gers’ official media partner said, Hickey’s at the point where if he returns to the Scottish Premiership, then he would be doing so to become a regular starter.

Van Bronckhorst does need to bring in a new right-back because we’ve got so many matches to play after the winter break that it’s no feasible to get through it without resting and rotating Tavernier, who could get injured too.

Patterson, for last season, was happy enough to play when Tavernier was injured or needed to sit out of a match to rest but he’s improved by leap and bounds since and deserved to be starting way more often than he was.

When we signed Bassey from Leicester, he knew he would have been the back-up for Borna Barisic and a makeshift left-sided centre-back when needed.

He’s done very well so as that kind of deal has worked previously, we expect it to happen again.

Who it will be is something we will hopefully find out in the coming days or weeks.

In other Rangers news, an ex-FIFA official has revealed what the SFA are keeping under wraps that massively affects the Gers.