Leon Balogun becomes the latest Rangers exit

Leon Balogun’s exit from Rangers has come to almost universal sadness from fans, amid the popular centre back’s inability to negotiate a new deal at Ibrox.

As we reported, Balogun had confirmed his desire to stay in Govan, but information that he was close to a new deal was wide of the mark and the best we could do for you was that he was uncertain.

Sadly, he was not able to secure a deal the club was happy with, and both parties will go their separate ways.

It’s ruthless, but Rangers could not in good faith recontract a player who spent as much time injured as Balogun did. The guy is a top defender, but was breaking down far too much for his wages to be value for money.

We don’t know if he was offered pay as you play, but he would certainly have refused it, and that’s fine.

Rangers are now down a defender, with Niko Katic and Filip Helander the main senior backups to Bassey, Goldson and Souttar, along with rising star Leon King, but we don’t feel it’s an area we desperately need new bodies for.

We now have 6 main central defenders and frankly that’s absolutely fine going forward. For now anyway.

Whether Katic or Helander have futures at the club we couldn’t say, but Balogun’s exit does trim the situation a bit.

As we said earlier, defence is very volatile at Ibrox and will evolve more as time goes on.

Don’t expect Balogun to be the final change.