There is no question Rangers’ season, while not absolutely horrible, has been far from smooth.
Performances haven’t been great, results are already mixed (3W 2D 1L) and fans are a little anxious. A 50% win rate isn’t good enough at Ibrox, simple as.
However, we’re more bewildered by the £10M vacuum right now on the bench (or not even) in that £4M man Ben Davies is barely anywhere to be seen (aside a mediocre appearance v Saints) and £5.5M man Ridvan Yilmaz is permanently on the sidelines.
We’ve justified this already, explaining that different players do settle in at different levels and speeds, so we’re not going to criticise what may amount to little more than rudimentary sports psychology.
But there is a lot to be said for the fact the two big summer investments of the defending duo, who were supposed to immediately overhaul a struggling left side of defence, have effectively been paperweights.
We are in no way criticising the speed at which they settle in, we are simply concerned we’ve splashed £10M on them and seen absolutely nothing in return yet.
We stand by our rating of Davies last week – nervous, shaky, and far from assured. All ratings agreed with us, the only ones who didn’t were the fans in response. And Ridvan was the same albeit worse on his debut – rabbit in headlights v Killie and quickly dropped thereafter.
It is early days but a player who Liverpool overlooked even when they were down to barebones willingly set us back £4M? And Ridvan’s CV is far better but he’s young and we spent £5M on a ‘prospect’?
We don’t want to focus on the negatives but we did think we’d have a bit more out of these two by late August, and so far it’s safe to say the value we’ve had from Davies and Ridvan is next to zero.
The sooner we get something from them, the better.
I have to say I agree with you it is early days thks however I am concerned with Ridvan.
I have family in Turkey who support Besiktas who laughed their head off when bought him.
I must say I have only seen him as much you have which is not much. What i do see is a young boy who has time to grow but right now for the money he is nowhere near our first team he is too lightweight at present.
Across the city they had frimpong same build same size and i used to love us playing against him cos i knew we would bully him and the SPL hammer throwers did aswell thats why he wasnt a great success over the road albeit they did get good cash for him. Hoping same for Ridvan but going from Bassey to Ridvan is a massive step down
I am also worried for Davies. Gvb said in interview before psv game that he wasnt aware Davies had a problem until he came to him last tuesday day of said psv game and he hasnt been mentioned since .
All in so far poor recruitment.
Have we signed another glass player like we have with Helander and Souttar all the while we let Balogun go.
As for saturdays game against hibs when backs against the wall and asked to defend. Who were we crying out for KATIC.
KATIC can defend we know this so why is he nowhere near the bench.
Give him a chance. I dont want him to be beckenbauer i want him to defend end of
Barasic has until yesterday been upping his game, especially in Europe so I can see why Yilmaz would be benched although he needs games . Davies is a strange one it’s a fair bit of money for a fringe player . I would have expected to see gim get some minutes due to our poor defence and also CH injuries. I also thought that GVB and his Coaches would trying out different things on the trainings pitch to solve these problems or there is no point in what we spent on either?
I think we can all judge these players once they have been given a proper run in the team ,as yet it is a bit bewildering that so much been spent on them and they haven’t been given the nod .I would question the coaching staff on this ,also begining to wonder if gio has our league sussed ,as the fat Greek clearly knows how to play against drivel and get a good result .Time will tell but good results in Europe will only appease so much when they are winning titles …..
These guys were signed late in the day but surely Liverpool and Besiktas do pre-season training. I’m guessing therefore it’s not fitness that’s stopping them playing. They’ve now been there for around 4 weeks so must know the players and how we play. That just leaves ability and that’s where I start to get worried. Have we just pissed another £10m against the wall?
No one in Turkey could believe rangers bought ridvan, in the besiktass fans he’s rubbish,nothing yet disproves it,same goes for Davies,who never did much at liverpool
Back to poor defending at set pieces , been a problem and one man to blame Goldson. Can’t header a ball , gets dragged out of position , blames everyone else, should never been given new contract. We let Balogan go , looks like Katic is going yet we keep the worst centre half in the club.
The best we have ( Helander) is injury prone and should be let go as he is no use to us in the treatment room.
I agree with James Goldson is a shamble to Rangers, every time a corner or freekick is awarded to the opposite side my head is melted . Goldson is going to cost us the League and maybe in Europe as well , play hm in the Second team and play someone who is not going to DUCK 🦆 if the ball is going to hit him 😂. I have said this before , I wouldn’t give him a match for Linfield, he is a liability for any team 🤡 Shankill Ray 👍
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