Ridvan Yilmaz has told Turkish press he isn’t coming back to his homeland, following reports of a loan deal to Besiktas, but hasn’t explicitly ruled out a Rangers exit either.

The currently-injured but returning left back found the going tough during his first 6 months at Ibrox, those being the first time away from home for the 21-year old, managing very few appearances despite the reported £6M spent on him.

And his lack of playing time has alerted clubs across Europe to his apparent unhappiness and potential for leaving, with former employer Besiktas said to be interested in taking him back on loan, but the defender isn’t interested in that.

He said:

Which shuts the door on him returning to his old club or indeed homeland league, but if there’s one thing the SPL certainly isn’t, it’s a top league, and Ridvan is already making it clear he sees his future among the top five in Europe, which clearly means if any big European side comes in for him from the bigger leagues, even Holland and Portugal, Ridvan would clearly take the chance to leave Rangers.

Which is fair enough really, but if there’s one thing we’re fed up with, it’s the number of players who come to Rangers and aren’t shy about quickly telling the world they want the Premier League or a big European league, with Alfredo Morelos and eventually Glen Kamara being two such blatant culprits.

Yilmaz may be lost in translation and means that he wants to prove himself at Rangers, but we doubt it – the SPL is considerably below even Turkey in overall quality, even if Turkey had no sides in the UCL, and we highly doubt he moved to Scotland for the league’s ‘upgrade’ over his homeland.

Like any other player who comes to Rangers, 99% of the time they want their stepping stone to the PL or a big Euro league.

But for now, Ridvan Yilmaz at least isn’t going back to Turkey in January.