Ryan Jack’s Rangers race may be all but run

While there’s been a tonne of hype over Alfredo and Kent’s new contracts, or lack of signatures more to the point, there’s been a lot less on Ryan Jack, who is also out of contract next summer.

The powerful midfielder is a sure favourite with fans, but sadly, the former Aberdeen star, has made, in over 5 years at Ibrox, barely over 150 appearances. Taking Europe from 2018 into account, Rangers have played around 65 matches on average per season since Jacko has been at Ibrox, and that means he’s played, being generous, about half the possible fixtures he could.

Indeed, the best he’s managed in any given season was 25 league appearances, which is completely dwarfed by the 26 appearances in 2015/2016 being his worst at Pittodrie. He has a small level of injury history prior to Rangers, but the reality is from 2017 onwards, injury has absolutely wrecked his Rangers career despite the fact he’s nonetheless still achieved quite a lot.

Now? He’s out again till 2023, joining a host of Rangers players out long term as a result of the world cup getting in the way from mid-November onwards, meaning it’s feasible his Rangers career, more or less, is kind of over.

Leon Balogun was released for injury reasons – a mistake, it turns out, but he was offered no new contract because of his propensity towards missing a tonne of football. Jack is the same – like so many players at Rangers, he is frequently unavailable, and if we’re honest, while his form this season has been a little better than previous, it’s still nowhere near what he used to be capable of prior to the horror he picked up in February 2020.

Prior to that, he was one of the most effective midfielders, defensively, we’ve seen at Ibrox for decades, covering Tavernier’s runs so well he caused Rangers’ defence to be pretty much watertight.

Now? Nowhere near it – with or without him, Rangers’ defence is frail, but with him its vulnerability shows the difference with him now as opposed to years ago.

We can’t make a case for a new deal, and from what we gather, he’s not been offered one. Ryan Jack pretty much knows it’s the end of his Rangers journey next summer, and we can but hope he at least gets a bit of a run in the team next year without any more pesky injuries.

But it’s a long shot.