Rabbi Matondo has no future at Ibrox, his Rangers career has been entirely pointless
When the summer transfer window saw several first-team players joining Rangers, there were levels to each arrival and the fan expectation towards them.
Many people knew that Antonio Colak would step into the team and shine, with his goal record impressive and the fee big enough to convince that he would be a starter under Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
The same could be said for Ben Davies after the sale of Calvin Bassey, while Ridvan Yilmaz was always a bit more of a gamble coming from Turkey while there was little risk with Tom Lawrence and John Souttar because they were free transfers.
But when Rangers agreed a fee of around £2m with Schalke for Wales international winger Rabbi Matondo, there were more fans against it than excited about it.
His level wasn’t clearly good enough for Rangers, and the fee was a relatively big one for Rangers who don’t tend to spend big on signings when they’re not guaranteed starters.
But Matondo was set to join behind Ryan Kent, Scott Wright, Malik Tillman and Fashion Sakala in the pecking order, while the striker positions were filled with Alfredo Morelos and Kemar Roofe as well as Colak.
It was always going to be difficult for him to break in as a regular, and his injury record was never going to help either.
Since signing for the club, Matondo has managed just six starts in the Scottish Premiership, and hasn’t played a single minute for Rangers so far in 2023.
It seems pretty clear now since the arrival of Todd Cantwell into the squad in January too that Beale isn’t a fan of the 22-year-old Matondo, and his future at Ibrox is bleak.
Where he’ll end up nobody knows, because there has been very little talk about an exit to any club in particular, but it is clear that he has no future at Rangers while Beale is manager.
It has been a pointless signing and a waste of £2m, but the club must now cut their losses and let him go quickly rather than holding out just for him to sit on the sidelines.
Beale has a clear vision of how he wants his squad to look next season and who he wants to be involved, and Matondo is not part of that.
In other Rangers news, boost for the club as Celtic could be without star attacker for Old Firm clash.