Rangers transfer news: Ridvan Yilmaz now a prominent candidate for interested club ahead January
Ridvan Yilmaz is now a “prominent candidate” for Galatasaray’s left-back slot as interest heats up around the Rangers defender ahead of January, according to Fotomac.
The Turkish outlet reported via Twitter on 16 December that the Light Blues man is a key option for the Super Lig giants in his homeland, in the latest of repeated links for the 22-year-old to head back to the league.
Despite being at the club for nearly a year and a half now the Turkish international has still only made 25 appearances amid regular injury interruptions, and has been unable to dislodge Borna Barisic as first choice.
He was left out of the European squad by former manager Michael Beale and has shared time with the Croatian veteran since Philippe Clement took over.
Cut and run?
There likely is a solid player in Yilmaz and he has shown flashes in his time at Ibrox, including the run to end last season that had many believing the left-back situation was sorted during the summer.
But the stop-start nature of his Rangers career has instead continued into a second campaign, with Beale’s move to not register him for Europa League action damning.
Now that the former manager has departed his judgement may be more in doubt than Yilmaz’s ability, but the former Besiktas man still hasn’t been a total regular under Clement.
If there is good money on offer then it might be more worthwhile to now admit defeat and try again with a signing of the Belgian’s own choosing.
Clement however may wish to see more of what he has at his disposal, especially if he isn’t convinced that Barisic is going to be here beyond the summer, so another window could yet pass with a third manager still waiting to determine whether Yilmaz can be the man going forward.
That has been the situation more or less since he arrived two summers’ ago so it is hardly a glowing assessment of either the player or the club in the time since.
It somehow feels like Yilmaz has been at Ibrox for longer than 18 months and yet his body of work is that of a signing who only just arrived, so eventually one manager is going to have to make a decision on him.
In other Rangers news, Tom English admits one “exceptional” Light Blues man is among the best in Scotland for “many-a-year”.