As Ridvan Yilmaz is left out of Rangers Europa League squad a realisation is beginning to dawn at Ibrox with regards the left-back.
Signed last season on a deal which could reach £5m from Besiktas, the Turkish international’s first year-and-a-bit in Glasgow has not gone to plan.
After struggling to settle in Glasgow, a devastating hamstring injury interrupted the left-back’s first season, and since then Ridvan Yilmaz has struggled to bounce back at Rangers.
Factor in the fact Michael Beale does not appear to fancy the 22-year-old, who was signed under Giovanni van Bronckhorst, and suddenly the move begins to take on a strange dimension.
At a time when Rangers must be shrewd with their transfer investments, the double £9m signing of Ben Davies and Ridvan Yilmaz has proven an Ibrox crutch.
It’s also a damning indictment on the late transfer window workings of ex-Ibrox sporting director Ross Wilson, whose legacy is being felt in an imbalanced squad which had ran its course by the end of the last season.
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Both players have failed to put in anything like the contribution their substantial transfer packages represent and with Ridvan Yilmaz in particular a Rangers realisation is beginning to dawn.
The decision to leave Ridvan Yilmaz out of the Europa League can be excused for any number of reasons but if the wing-back was central to Michael Beale’s plans he’d be in the team.
The fact that Dujon Sterling – a right-back who can play at left-back – has been preferred in both the Europa League squad and in the absence of Borna Barisic speaks volumes.
Ridvan Yilmaz came off the bench for Rangers in the 1-0 defeat to Celtic and in such an important game it’s interesting that Michael Beale didn’t trust the left-back.
The Ibrox manager also hasn’t found a place for the player in his Europa League squad as the realisation dawns that perhaps it is not going to work in Glasgow for the player.
That’s even if one of the main men at Besiktas insists Rangers have a plan for their former talent.