If one thing became apparent this afternoon, it was Rangers’ desperate need for John Souttar and Danilho Doekhi.

With Calvin Bassey showing once and for all he’s a good squad member but not good enough to be a first-team starting CB, and Connor Goldson looking at sixes and sevens himself, Rangers badly missed both Leon Balogun and Filip Helander.

Balogun it appears is injured yet again and was not present for training, while Helander is coming back but is just a bit short of fitness.

Which shows how crucial bringing in the Hearts and Vitesse men respectively has become.

Quite simply Rangers don’t have enough quality at the back fit often enough.

We have some great stoppers, particularly Helander, but these guys are unavailable the majority of the time and we’re having to resort to stopgap solutions in particular using Bassey out of position at centre-half.

Let’s not be unfair, he has done not bad, and at times even flirted with outright impressing, but over the couple of months+ that Giovanni van Bronckhorst has used him he’s been exposed quite a few times and his limitations magnified significantly.

And Goldson of course has his ongoing future contract saga issues to deal with.

So, in short, we currently have zero reliable installed defenders who are here long term and are currently available.

Which is simply no good, and that state of flux and uncertainty surely contributed to today’s gaffe-ridden eyesore at Dingwall in which Rangers’ backline was more dangerous to us than anything County could throw at us.

Vitesse reportedly want £2M for their wantaway defender, while Hearts still seek around £500K for theirs – should Rangers cut their losses, shell out the £2.5M and get the pair of them in now?

We don’t have an abundance of money to throw about but needs must, and Rangers’ defence surely needs must.