Rangers today finally confirmed Ridvan Yilmaz as a player for the Light Blues, but what does the £5M signing mean for Gio’s team and where does he fit in?

Well after the sale of Calvin Bassey and form loss from Borna Barisic, Rangers needed to completely overhaul the left side of defence. This was significantly done with the addition of Ben Davies, a left footed CH who can also play at LB, just like the outgone Nigerian, but more was needed.

Rangers needed a quality body at LB who was the marquee first choice, because Davies is viewed as more of a CB and a partner for the undroppable Goldson.

That’s where Yilmaz comes in – this Turkey international is an absolutely top, top signing, and at a modest 21 years of age he has all the potential in the world – the reality is he is already approaching being a world class player, having put in many great shifts in the Süper Lig with his former side, and he’s not been signed at his price as depth.

Which means Borna Barisic is going to find his chances limited now, and even John Souttar (more on that later) is going to struggle for minutes.

Davies and Yilmaz are a combined cost of around £10M – Rangers haven’t spent that kind of outlay for benchwarmers. 2019 we did something similar – signed Helander and Kent for the same amount, around £10.5M and while Helander did take longer to get a place, due to Katic’s form at the time, he was envisioned as a starter.

Of course, if Barisic regains his old form and becomes completely undroppable then maybe Yilmaz will have to fight and wait his turn.

But we just don’t think the Turk will be anything other than a starter when he’s ready to be integrated.

This is the kind of competition Rangers deserve.