Rangers make future stance on Leon King clear after deal with former Celtic captain
Leon King was once Rangers’ most promising young talent, but he has not developed as well as previously expected.
King struggled for game time last season, and spent the final few months of the campaign on loan at Championship side Queens Park.
The defender has one year remaining on his contract at Ibrox, and King left Rangers on loan last week to join Ayr United.
As things stand, King faces an uncertain future, with a new contract for the 21-year-old not ruled out, but Rangers’ latest decision indicates that this is unlikely to happen.
Rangers loaned Leon King to Scott Brown’s Ayr United
King’s loan departure from Ibrox has seen him return to the Championship with Ayr United, but the choice of club is a significant one.
Ayr United are managed by Scott Brown, who is a name familiar to all Rangers fans as a true enemy in Old Firm clashes of years gone by.
- Brown was Celtic captain and won 10 Scottish Premiership titles in 14 years with Rangers’ greatest rivals.
- The former midfielder was a tough-tackler and often got into fights with Rangers players during Old Firm clashes.
Brown is now managing Ayr United, yet Rangers loaned him King, and the 40-year-old has now praised the young defender.
“For a boy of 21, Leon comes with great experience under his belt,” Brown stated via the Daily Record of the Rangers defender.
“He’s already played 50 times at a club like Rangers, including games at the top level in Europe. There was a lot of excitement about him a few years ago when he first came on the scene.
“He hasn’t quite been able to kick on as he’d have hoped but there’s still time on his side.
“Coming here is a great chance for him to kickstart his career and enjoy playing regular games.”
Leon King’s Rangers career may be over
King left after the transfer window had already shut, and did not feature once under Russell Martin, which is a big indicator that he does not feature in the club’s future plans.
If Rangers were planning for King to have a future at Ibrox, they would have either kept him in the squad, or loaned him to a top-flight team.
More care would have been taken over King’s development than to loan him to Brown, a well-known enemy of Rangers’ progress and a true Old Firm nemesis.
While it is in Brown’s interests for King to play well there, the defender may not have been handed to the Celtic legend so easily if the club intended on extending his deal and keeping him for the long-term, and he is now likely to leave for free at the end of the season.
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