Galatasaray manager makes admission on January transfer for Rangers defender Ridvan Yilmaz
Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk admits that Rangers defender Ridvan Yilmaz is on his radar ahead of the January transfer window.
Buruk name-dropped the Turkey international while discussing his plans for next month and said that they were “evaluating” the possibility of signing him.
Yilmaz moved to Ibrox in the summer and has not had the easiest of starts to life in the Scottish capital.
The Turkish manager said, via the Scottish Sun, “As yet, we haven’t made a formal move for any player, but we are watching a lot of them.
“With regards to the ones mentioned – Ridvan Yılmaz, Halil Akbunar and Deniz Undav – they are all good players and we are evaluating all of them. We have all their matches followed.
“Perhaps things will become more clear in January, but we have not had a meeting with any of them at the moment.”
Keep him
It has been a tough few months for Yilmaz but he knew what he was signing up for moving to a tougher league and at a team playing in the Champions League.
He wasn’t going to just be given a first-team berth ahead of Borna Barisic without proving himself and thus far the Croatian has done a better job.
While there are still issues defensively with him, he is still the favoured option and it remains to be seen what Michael Beale decides to do with his left-backs.
Regardless, Yilmaz is always going to be in consideration for the starting eleven and cannot be loaned out due to the lack of depth at the club.
It also makes no sense to allow him to leave and sign another left-back as he’s got to get used to life in the SPFL and the pressure it takes to play for Rangers.
Ideally, Barisic should be shown the door for a younger and better left-back as we feel his time at Ibrox is coming to an end.
In other Rangers news, a BBC pundit has savaged a senior player at Ibrox after what he saw him do last week.