Joe Aribo: Rangers can't get sentimental after Southampton announcement

Joe Aribo has been released by Southampton, opening up the potential for Rangers to re-sign their former star on a free this summer.

The 29-year-old midfielder joined Southampton in the summer of 2022 from Rangers, and has been with them ever since.

Aribo spent three years at Ibrox between 2019 to 2022, and became a hugely popular and important player in Govan.

He scored Rangers' goal in their Europa League final defeat to Frankfurt in 2022, opening the scoring in that match with his memorable second-half strike.

In total, the Nigerian international made 149 appearances and scored 26 goals for Rangers before joining Southampton, where he won promotion to the Premier League with Saints in 2023-24.

But he will now head into an uncertain chapter of his career, with Southampton's official retained list confirming he will leave as a free agent this summer.

How did Joe Aribo fare in 2025-26?

With his contract expiring at St Mary's at the conclusion of the 2025-26 season, Aribo was always likely to become a free agent this summer.

There was even murmurings over a potential Rangers return in January, with the Nigerian firmly down the pecking order at Southampton.

Indeed, he did depart during the winter window, joining Leicester City on loan for the remainder of the campaign.

Aribo and the Foxes would suffer a shocking relegation to League One though, which only helped to seal his Saints fate further.

He played seven times for Southampton and made six appearances for Leicester in the Championship last season, totalling 13 league outings which culminated in 241 minutes of football.

As per FotMob, Aribo's 25.8 successful passes per game ranked him in the bottom 28.6 percentile of Championship central midfielders in 2025-26.

His 0.37 accurate long balls, successful dribbles and chances created per 90 put him in the bottom 5.7, 36.4 and 14.3 per cent of his positional rivals respectively.

Aribo also won just 26.3 per cent of his duels, as well as averaging 44.1 touches, 1.12 tackles, 0.75 shots and 1.87 times dribbled past per game last season too.

In short, he simply looked a shell of the former Rangers talisman he used to be, and could have a small market for his signature this summer.

49ers could see Aribo as easy transfer win

Aribo was a superb player for Rangers; that's sort of the issue here.

He was the architect behind some brilliant goals, and was one of the big Ibrox poster boys of the Steven Gerrard era.

Because of that, there would undoubtedly be a significant number of Rangers fans delighted to see him back wearing the royal blue shirt in 2026-27.

Given the way last season ended, and now with the uncertainty over Danny Rohl's future, the mood amongst the support is largely one of frustration.

Therefore, Andrew Cavenagh and the 49ers could view the option of signing a cult hero in Aribo on a free as a cheap and easy win to get those fans back on board.

That's not something they should explore, however, as sentimentality often doesn't win league titles, and Aribo's recent form would suggest he's not the player he once was.

Besides, Gers already have an abundance of creative attacking talent in midfield, and so there wouldn't be much point in bringing Aribo back for him to simply sit on the bench.

It's fine for a football club to love a former star from a distance, and that's what Rangers should do with Aribo this summer.