By Daniel Feliciano

19th Mar, 2022 | 12:40pm

'Time to deliver' - Kris Boyd fires Rangers warning to fringe players

Kris Boyd has fired a warning to four Rangers players and told them it’s ‘time to deliver’ for Giovanni van Bronckhorst in the final run-in of the season.

Rangers have made it to the Europa League quarter-finals, Scottish Cup semi-finals and are currently three points behind Celtic in the race for the title.

But with the manager largely sticking to his core group of players, Boyd has called on Aaron Ramsey, Amad Diallo, Kemar Roofe and Fashion Sakala to step up to the plate and earn his trust to play more often.

“Gio has more or less stuck with the same personnel for the Euro run,” he said in his Scottish Sun column.

“Walter Smith did the same in ’08 when we reached the Uefa Cup final in Manchester.

“More often than not, I was one of the ones left kicking his heels on the bench from Athens to Bremen, Lisbon to Florence.

“No one can ever take away from me the fact that I stepped from the bench to play in a European final.

“But I knew my main role that season, as Rangers won two domestic cups, was to keep producing at the weekends and give others a well-earned break.

“Does Van Bronckhorst trust his subs to step in during the domestic run-in?

“Well, if not, it’s about time the likes of Kemar Roofe, Fashion Sakala, Aaron Ramsey and Amad Diallo proved to him they’re ready to ease the burden.

“Roofe bagged a crucial winner against Aberdeen at Ibrox a couple of weeks ago. Sakala nicked one at the end of the 3-0 Scottish Cup win at Dundee last Sunday. There’s no questioning the quality of Ramsey or Diallo, so now is their time to deliver.”

Step up

If Rangers are to be successful on all fronts this season, they need more than just their starting lineup to perform to a high level.

Van Bronckhorst has certainly found his best team and he has a core amount of players that he trusts more than others, with only some positions really up for grabs.

But with plenty of quality depth available to him, it’s time for those players to step up to the mantle and make themselves part of his trusted group of players.

If the four players mentioned can start turning in the level of performance that we already know they’re capable of, the club will have a far better chance of sustaining a level of success in all competitions.

Without them though, they could end up burning out and despite what looks a good season on paper they could end up empty handed.

In other Rangers news, ‘World Class’ – Owen Hargreaves can’t believe what Rangers ace did this week