When Ibrox Noise reported Rangers’ interest in Goncalo Borges, a 23-year-old winger at Porto, we touched on the fact Rangers were doing nothing in defence.

One of the areas of our team that desperately, critically needed TLC and it was being neglected again in favour, this time, of adding a 6th winger to the roster, making some fans wonder what on earth the strategy this window at Ibrox actually is.

It’s a fair question, but unfortunately, the answer is depressing.

Rangers simply cannot afford to bloat the squad any more – we have 29 senior players on our roster, and finances are hardly lavish.

Ergo, with Connor Goldson still not actually confirmed as departed by the club, he technically is still on our payroll alongside the disgustingly-expensive Ben Davies – that’s £75,000 between them.

Leon Balogun is much less, around £10,000 (modest pay rise from his £8K previous salary), while John Souttar is around the same as he. We couldn’t guess at Clinton Nsiala’s salary but can’t imagine it being a lot higher than £5,000 for a kid.

But in order to sign new defenders we need to ship, mainly, Goldson and Davies out.

Goldson’s departure appears to be done, but Ben Davies is very much entrenched in Rangers’ payroll, and while he was told that he was free to leave, he’s not interested in doing so unless his salary is matched. And no one will do that.

So why are we not signing defenders?

We need to sell Ben Davies and complete Connor Goldson’s exit, that’s why.

John Souttar isn’t going anywhere, and Leon Balogun just signed a new deal – those two are firmly in there for next season.

Davies has been heavily part of preseason, missing only one match, and has started the rest – we are getting the distinct vibe that like James Tavernier, Rangers can’t shift him off the payroll so are just having to play him.

Great isn’t it?

Which basically means with the exit of Goldson, Rangers have an even worse defence than the mince it was when he was in it – John Souttar, Leon Balogun and Ben Davies. Along with ‘not ready to be used’ Clinton Nsiala.

Balogun and Souttar might be good defenders, but they’re both right-footed meaning a potential lack of balance. Davies is the leftie but he’s considerably below standard.

But you see the current dilemma for Rangers.

We can’t get rid of Davies, so we’re stuck with him – and the other two are righties so probably won’t play together under this manager.

In simple terms Rangers’ defence is dire, but it’s on ex-Sporting Director Ross Wilson for sanctioning a disgraceful salary both for Goldson and Davies – and while most Rangers fans like Balogun and Souttar, there’s a lack of conviction that they’re favoured under this manager or have a good balance as a pairing.

But of course, at last, some good news: there’s a small light at the end of the tunnel – it sadly comes likely too late for Hearts, but with the (impending) Goldson announcement, Rangers will have a free £38,000 to offer a new defender or two, meaning we can recruit a couple of good alphas before the window ends.

We really, really need to do that, and it needs to be at least one alpha leftie.

Love or hate Scott McKenna, he’d be a tonne better than Ben Davies. And a lot cheaper.

But time is against us for Hearts.

What a shambles our rearguard was left in.