Gary Keown baffled by what he’s heard about Ridvan Yilmaz at Rangers
Gary Keown is baffled by what people close to Ridvan Yilmaz are saying about why the new Rangers left-back is struggling to get game-time.
Yilmaz, 21, arrived at Ibrox in the summer for from Besiktas for £5million but he’s so far played just three times in all competitions, amounting to 176 minutes.
Despite Borna Barisic’s struggling form, Giovanni van Bronckhorst is barely playing Yilmaz, leaving Scottish Mail on Sunday journalist Keown confused as to why that’s the case.
According to Keown, there are concerns among Yilmaz’s circle about the physicality of the Turkey left-back. But the journalist simply isn’t having that.
Writing in the Scottish Mail on Sunday (print edition, 2 October, page 152), Keown said: “There is no ‘noise’ around Yilmaz, no criticism. Because no one has seen him. The fact we are now in October and he still isn’t anywhere near the team can’t be waved away as something perfectly normal.
“Particularly when Rangers invested a massive chunk of what we now know was a surprisingly limited summer budget on him.
“People with connections are now talking about Yilmaz not being tall enough or physical enough. That cannot possibly be a genuine concern within Ibrox, though. He’s the same stature he was when he was scouted.”
Staggering
Is that seriously why Yilmaz isn’t playing?
We get that he’s still a young lad. But he’s not young enough that he needs to sit on the bench every week and simply learn from being in and around the senior squad.
Yilmaz played 62 times for Besiktas and has six caps for the Turkey national team.
Although he didn’t played, he’s been to the European Championships with his country, won a Turkish Super Lig title and played in the Champions League group stages with his former club.
He’s not at the level Calvin Bassey was when he first arrived at Ibrox. He’s at a far more advanced stage.
Barisic’s rotten form has been going on for over year but he’s still playing every week.
When Bassey played as a left-sided centre-back, that helped Barisic. But since the Nigerian joined Ajax, the Croatian has fallen back into his slump.
If there’s a time for Yilmaz to come in, it’s now.
And if Rangers are worried by his height and physical attributes, Ross Wilson really does need to be relieved of his duties.
In other Rangers news, this star player has rejected a new contract at Ibrox.