Michael Beale messing with Ridvan Yilmaz’s mind at Rangers after surprise snub claims BBC pundit
Michael Beale’s handling of Ridvan Yilmaz is “playing about with this mind” after the Rangers boss made surprise moves with the full-back, according to Derek Ferguson.
The BBC pundit said on Open Goal (21 September) that the Ibrox boss has “put pressure on himself” by promising more in the summer than he is currently delivering, and criticised his decision to omit the left-back from the Europa League squad.
The Turkish defender was then surprisingly put into the starting line up for the win against St Johnstone last week, leaving Ferguson to dub him the “hokey cokey man” because he “doesn’t know if he’s coming or going”.
Ferguson said (43m 55s): “I think [Beale’s] put that pressure on himself, because he promised us, but we’re still searching for that [settled] team.
“Look at the back as well, the changes there, I didn’t expect that, the wee hokey-cokey man Yilmaz he doesn’t know if he’s coming or going.
“He’s in, he’s out. That must play on his mindset because you’re not in the Europa squad, the manager gave his reasons why, but even if you’ve got belief in somebody and he’s not played a lot of football you still have him in that Europa squad.
“So it’s like playing about with his mind.”
Unsettled
The decision to take Yilmaz out of the European squad came as a surprise to most, and while it may mean Beale is looking to use him more frequently in the SPFL it won’t help the 22-year-old gain much needed consistency.
The former Besiktas man’s long-term future at the club has been called into question due to his inability to get a sustained run in the team.
Fitness permitting he needs the opportunity to play as many games as possible so to be left out of contention entirely for the European fixtures can’t be overly helpful to him.
Borna Barisic has frequently come in for criticism over his defensive capabilities, and notwithstanding the impressive win against Real Betis on Thursday (21 September) it would surely make sense for there to be a specialist back up option available if Beale has any designs on qualifying for the knock-out stages.
Dujon Sterling can fill in on the left but it is not his main position, and when decent money was spent on Yilmaz a year ago it was expected that he would probably be set to take over as the starter long term.
That may still happen, and Beale’s selection for the game against Motherwell on Sunday will give more of a clue, but amid what has been a stop-start time at Rangers so far the Turkish international still hasn’t found much stability.
In other Rangers news, the club are eyeing a “significant profit” on a new signing already according to Chris Jack.