Rangers have been accused of having a soft centre at times this season with a real lack of the type of defender that puts clean sheets before personal welfare.
The type who doesn’t turn their back when closing down a shot, think Filip Helander, and it’s clear that Philippe Clement doesn’t have anyone in his squad like the big Swede.
The manager added Rafael Fernandes in January, but Rangers links to Nikola Katic never fully went away, little wonder when the Bosnia international has admitted that he didn’t want to sign for his current club.
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Why Nikola Katic didn’t want to move to Plymouth Argyle
Katic has become an instant cult hero for Plymouth Argyle after his heroics against Liverpool in their shock FA Cup win.
The 28-year old has followed up his man of the match display against the Premier League leaders by scoring his first goal for the club, even though he wasn’t entirely sold on the move to the south coast:
“To be honest, at the start I didn’t want (to sign for Argyle),” said Katic to Plymouth Live. “The club was in a bad position. I watched the games against QPR and Burnley, and I just said ‘no’ to the coach.
“We had a really honest conversation and everything, but he was really consistent, phoned me and I saw the way that he wants me it cannot be bad. It will be good for me, it will be good for him.
“The connection from the first day, the way he kept calling me, how much he praised me as a player and wanted to have me in his dressing room, so I decided to come and so far I can say I did the right thing and I’m really enjoying it here.”
Did Rangers sign the wrong centre-half?
Katic is a horses for courses centre-half and always looked like he would be perfect for a team that defends deep and in a defence that has a lot of protection from their midfield.
At Rangers, he would struggle in possession playing what looked like simple passes to full-backs, he certainly wasn’t capable of pinging diagonals across the pitch to wingers on the opposite flank.
With Balogun not getting any younger, Katic would bring experience and solid defensive nous to Rangers were he to return and Jack Butland would be significantly more protected at set-pieces too.
As a self-confessed Light Blues fan, he would walk to Ibrox to put pen to paper on another deal, unfortunately, the signing of Fernandes suggests that the chances of this ever happening are practically zero.
Plymouth got the hero that they needed, but the one that Rangers wanted.
