Despite Turkish left back Ridvan Yilmaz’ protestations, he remains one of three players Galatasaray are actively monitoring as confirmed by their manager.
The former Besiktas defender has sworn he’s not going back to Turkey, that he wants to test himself in one of Europe’s top five leagues first (which sure ain’t the Scottish Premiership anyway), but that isn’t stopping chiefs from his homeland monitoring him with a possible January move being attempted.
We’d imagine it would be a loan attempt, unless Galatasaray are over their financial difficulties and can afford to purchase a player of this value, but the Ibrox left back himself has claimed he’s got no interest in going home.
But the man watching him, Okan Buruk has confirmed the club’s interest in Yilmaz and another two players and spoke about it:
“As of yet, we haven’t made a formal move for any player, but we are watching a lot of them. With regards to the ones mentioned – Rıdvan Yılmaz, Halil Akbunar (Westerlo) and Deniz Undav (Brighton) – they are all good players and we are evaluating all of them. We have all their matches followed. Perhaps things will become more clear in January, but we have not had a meeting with any of them at the moment.”
In short, it doesn’t matter what the player actually wants or says, it matters what their employer and a prospective courting club wants, and while the player generally gets final say on their destination, the cards can often be as much in the hands of clubs.
And here, Buruk is admitting he’s actively watching Ridvan’s situation, which, of course, is currently non-existent at Ibrox and the lad is waiting to get fit and get his chance to finally shine in Govan which is what we’ve expected since adding him.
Is he destined to move on? It would be a great surprise if Ridvan was now to be a big success at Ibrox – it depends on him getting fit, and Michael Beale wanting him. We doubt he’ll still be a Rangers player at the end of January but crazier things have happened in football.