There’s been a lot of talk about Rangers playmaker Todd Cantwell and his absence from Saturday’s big friendly with Manchester United, with many supporters concluding he’s off.

Now, manager Philippe Clement had confirmed in advance of this one that Cantwell would not be featuring due to injury, and would instead play for the ‘second’ team at the weekend.

The B Team reportedly faces Gateshead today (no confirmation on Gateshead website about this fixture at all) and Cantwell will, we assume, be involved in this.

So what does all this mean?

Cantwell has been training just fine with the first team squad, so we’re not exactly sure what injury the manager is on about, and there’s a lot of talk from fans that the attacker is surplus and will leave.

There is no denying Cantwell, to this day, still isn’t thrilled with what happened v Aris, when he was removed inside 20 minutes – he definitely doesn’t feel the love from Clement, but that’s ok – as long as he plays well.

Unfortunately he’s not been doing that either, in general – he’s not been involved in either of Rangers’ open-door friendlies, and that’s led to supporters believing he’s headed out.

Ibrox Noise information some weeks ago was that he was looking to move on, and very little in preseason has dispelled that data.

But the real question is why has Cantwell been demoted to the B Team?

The last time that happened was Sam Lammers, and he is hardly the manager’s first choice either.

It doesn’t bode terribly well – if Cantwell is fit enough to play for the reserves, surely he’s fit enough to play some part for the seniors.

But it seems for now he is playing no part at all for the top level of the club.

Why that is only Clement and he really know.