Rangers Are Weighing Up Turkish Interest In John Souttar As His Deal Expires | OneFootball

As we mentioned before, it’s been a lively few days with regards to speculation on Rangers’ exits. And the big news story of the last few days, of course, has been that of John Souttar and his potential departure to Turkey with Trabzonspor, making yet another overture towards a Rangers player. Not content with taking John Lundstram and Borna Barisic, they are now setting their sights on Rangers’ Scotland international.

Souttar is fit again, we think. We’re never quite sure with this lad. And of course, there was his surgery after Scotland but before preseason, so there was conflict there. Club against Country row came along very strong in that one, but this is beside the point. He is without any doubt the only thing that we have regarding an alpha defender that is established.

The problem is, Trabzonspor know that he’s in the final year of his deal and Rangers did not offer him a new contract or he didn’t sign what was offered. Either way, it expires in 2026 and that would be yet another asset player that Rangers would be losing for nothing. He’s still on the right side of 30 and he is definitely an asset player, especially when he’s at his best. His market value probably isn’t super high, but nevertheless he’s one that Rangers would want to keep. Trabzonspor know that Rangers would want to keep him, but then again, if we haven’t offered him a contract or he hasn’t signed, hands are tied all round.

As for Trabzonspor, we’re not sure why they’re so interested in Rangers, why it’s always them that either get linked to our players or do actually sign them. It’s a very curious one, but nevertheless they seem to want him. Rangers’ big problem right now is that we do not have a defence. We have signed two defenders, one on loan, one permanent. The one on loan looks like a marquee stopper, but that’s on paper. Yes, Djiga is, in theory, an excellent defender. We’ve talked about his credentials before, but that doesn’t matter. It’s what you produce on the pitch that counts and we will see in time what he does.

However, we’re far less enthused by his potential team-mate, Emmanuel Fernandez. Coming from League 1 and Peterborough, his stock isn’t exactly high and Rangers paid £3.5 million for him. That is information verified by Sky Sports because, of course, Rangers never disclose fees. But that said, for all that money, Posh fans were absolutely delighted to get rid of the guy and to get money for him, even if it had been one penny. He was terrible there and the vast majority of their fans were absolutely thrilled at his exit. They were praising Barry Fry as an absolute god.

So we at Rangers, well, us at Ibrox Noise, aren’t super excited about this guy in our shirt. But he is the other option. So that’s the three that we have. Unless you count Robin Propper as well, of course. In fact, that’s, right now, the five that we have. Even though Ben Davies is out of the picture and has been told he has no future, which we will get to later, he is nevertheless still on the payroll and is on a fee of anywhere between £20,000 to £30,000.

Coming from Liverpool, he got an absolute king’s ransom of cash and was thrilled at the deal. We can’t quite understand how Ben Davies, of all people, has managed to play for literally Britain’s two biggest clubs in Rangers and Liverpool; beats us, it really does. But nevertheless, that is the point of the five players we have there right now. Davies, albeit out of the picture. Souttar, injuries notwithstanding. Fernandez, apparently not very good. Djiga, a real marquee potential, but we’ll need to see in time. And, of course, Propper, who is a proper failure at Rangers.

Defence is a mess, as per usual. It always is. It has been since Walter left, ever since he departed. We have lacked any kind of robust defence at all. And now it’s much the same. And the one player that we have in there that we do know is pretty solid, Souttar, is of the attention of Turkey. So, time will tell if he remains at Ibrox or not.