Rangers boss Steven Gerrard’s claim about his centre-back options following Wednesday night’s win at Hibernian suggests George Edmundson could be impacted by the club’s move for Jack Simpson [RangersTV].
Edmundson impressed at times last season following his move from Oldham Athletic and he played a starring role in 2020/21 pre-season.
However, he slipped down the pecking order following the late arrival of Leon Balogun and after spending the first few months of the season on the bench, he was hit with a seven-match SFA ban for breaching Covid regulations with Jordan Jones.
That suspension was completed before the end of the year, but hasn’t featured since and is currently out injured after undergoing a “small procedure” [Glasgow Times].
Meanwhile, the club have secured a pre-contract deal for Bournemouth’s Jack Simpson.
The 24-year-old centre-back will move to Rangers in the summer at the latest but with Cherries boss Jason Tindall suggesting earlier in the week that Simpson’s head was already at Ibrox [Bournemouth Echo], a move before the end of the month is still very much possible.
A Gerrard comment about his defensive options made after the 1-0 win over Hibs suggests that an early move for Simpson could take Edmundson out of the reckoning entirely.
“We need four centre-backs over the course of the season,” said the Gers boss [RangersTV].
With Connor Goldson, Filip Helander and Balogun all thriving, three of the four slots have already been taken, and the swoop for Simpson suggests that Gerrard wants the 6ft 4″ Englishman to fill the final one.
Therefore, should the Bournemouth academy graduate arrive before the end of the month, Edmundson is likely to either be shifted down to fifth in the pecking order or sent out on loan.
Furthermore, with the highly-rated Nikola Katic set to return to fitness in the coming months, things could get even worse for Edmundson before the end of the current campaign.
Katic’s presence ensures that even if the club were to turn down their option to extend Balogun’s contract or to sell either Goldson or Helander ahead of next season, Edmundson would still find himself at best on the fringes of the first-team squad.
The move for Simpson is also bad news for an imposing Rangers loanee who recently jumped up a division after the termination of a previous loan stint.
