Michael Beale has confirmed, almost beyond the point of it mattering any more, the shock news that John Souttar is FINALLY fit and available for selection, and could be involved this weekend v Kilmarnock.
In a truly stunning development, the perennially-injured defender finally has regained enough fitness that he could be part of the Ibrox squad for the visit of Derek McInnes’ side, but of course the comical irony is he is going to get no piece of the first team because he’s not going to replace Connor Goldson or Ben Davies.
Indeed, a place on the bench is all Souttar will get, he’ll not start, but hey, maybe Beale is about to be gloriously unpredictable and drop someone in a shock move.
But being serious, we’re delighted to hear he’s fit again, and in the squad, although, given Beale’s track record for absolute fibs, it wouldn’t surprise us if Souttar is nowhere to be seen this weekend either!
Nevertheless, the manager has presented the claim that Souttar is now available and back in the squad at long last, and while his performances at the very start of the season went something below diabolical, one would hope the time to mentally adjust to the demands of being a Rangers player will give him an edge now.
Souttar has been a bit of a running joke, unfortunately, and there’s been claim and counter claim about his move and prospects at Ibrox, but ultimately, if we take the manager at face value, he should be on the bench this weekend at least and finally Rangers have a proper defender to call upon rather than Leon King or the departed James Sands.
Is it a boost that John Souttar is now fit? He’s not a remarkable defender but he’s a good one, but his reputation and stock took a hammering following the worst start to a Rangers player’s Ibrox career that we can probably remember in reasonably recent times.
We wish him well, and maybe, just maybe this is the start of John Souttar’s Rangers career finally getting going – or maybe it’s a false dawn like all the rest.
We hope, we cross our fingers – because it would be lovely to have a real defensive option in depth again.