Rangers’ biggest January win was keeping Ridvan Yilmaz

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Rangers’ biggest January win was keeping Ridvan Yilmaz
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - OCTOBER 29: Ridvan Yilmaz of rangers is seen during the Cinch Scottish Premiership match between Rangers FC and Heart of Midlothian at Ibrox Stadium on October 29, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

So that was the window that was. There will be a fair bit to digest from Rangers’ January exploits, but for many fans, the biggest successes in January were keeping Jack Butland and Ridvan, and shipping out Sam Lammers.

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Overall, there were just four exits, Ben Williamson, Lammers and Adam Devine. Steven Davis’ retirement was announced but that ‘doesn’t count’.

This means a lot of chafe remains on Rangers’ books, with surplus players still on the payroll for now – Cifuentes, Dowell, Davies, McLaughlin and a few others continue to be paid for doing not a lot.

But getting shot of Lammers was a big victory, a truly abysmal signing and who’s doing a fair bit better back in Holland with Utrecht. Fair play to him.

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But our biggest smile is definitely holding onto Ridvan. Butland wasn’t going – it would have taken a monumental bid to sell our best player, and Forest didn’t come close. In truth, with FFP breathing down their necks, they couldn’t. We’ll have more on that story soon.

But in Ridvan? If you believe the Turkish press, and we absolutely don’t, it was club-after-club in for the LB, who gains a tonne of clicks for his homeland’s press like so many Turkish players do. They happily lie just for the traffic and make things up as they go.

They know that they’ll get so much traffic with big attention stories. And Ridvan helps fuel that.

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Were there any legit bids for Ridvan? Just that one from Galatasarary – the one Rangers rejected. We’re not aware of any follow ups. But they did want him, but weren’t willing to pay the big money.

So he, and fellow LB Borna Barisic, remain Rangers players, it remains as it was – Borna’s deal with Roma fell through pretty fast, and now it’s 50/50 over whether he’ll be offered the new deal, or whether he’ll just move on this summer for free regardless of any new contract being offered.

We’re happy with LB. It’s solid. Ridvan is now great, and Borna’s a fairly reliable deputy.

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That, as much as anything, was a big win this window.

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