Rangers’ farcical defensive crisis laid bare amid board neglect

It has had Rangers’ fans scratching our heads in unison for the best part of 6 months…

Just why did Rangers let three defenders go without signing a single reliable replacement?

Why do Rangers still refuse to dip into the transfer market in the event of losing pretty much every defender we have?

It is absolutely staggering, and let’s paint the picture:

The chaos started when the club announced in early June that Leon Balogun was to leave. Now, in defence of this, Leon was constantly injured at Rangers and couldn’t put runs together, so we weren’t completely against this move, but we didn’t totally support it either. It put us down a strong defender who was arguably our best (as QPR now see).

The chaos worsened when Filip Helander’s much-vaunted comeback was derailed in Portugal as he got laid out till 2023, after lots of ooing and ahhing publicly from the club about how bad it was.

It then worsened as John Souttar arrived amid doubts about his form – his only two appearances for the club were absolutely horrendous v Livi and Spurs, plus add an existing injury from his Hearts days and a bereavement. His Rangers career was off to the worst start imaginable.

But then there was the revelation Niko Katic was unwanted, and Gio was done with him – no public reason given, only Niko explaining later on how shockingly he was treated when Gio came in. He was sold for £800K to Zurich.

Then there was, of course, Calvin Bassey – hype all summer and by the end of the training camp, which he of course didn’t attend, he was finally sold to Ajax for a very decent £23M. But nothing was done with that cash at all.

But then Ben Davies arrived, with little fanfare – no one was really thrilled with this one, but he cost a lot. Today we’re finally seeing him start to get some form, but he has barely played and we’re fast approaching November!

So, now we’ve lost Bassey, Balogun and Katic, brought in Sicknote Souttar, secured Davies too, and are having to resort to James Sands because no one else aside young Leon King is actually available alongside Goldson.

Then the final, bitter pill to the absolutely diabolical defensive ‘strategy’ is indeed losing Goldson, the bionic man the board reckoned was invulnerable, and which leaves no experienced right CB, and Davies on the left.

Who, on the words of all that is pure and holy, thought ANY of this was a good idea?

This isn’t down to bad luck, this is just atrocious planning and no execution at all.

To sign Souttar, to let Katic and Balogun go with no obvious plan to replace them… is it any wonder we’re exasperated and frustrated?

Nowadays we have 40+ year old McGregor the final line of defence behind Davies and whatever Gio can find to pair with him.

It is absolutely ridiculous.