It’s fair to say that it has never properly gone to plan for Ridvan Yilmaz at Rangers.
The former Besiktas left-back, 23, was once amongst the hottest young properties in Turkish football but over his some two and a half years at Rangers, that potential has never been realised.
Rangers fans have only ever seen flashes of what Ridvan Yilmaz can do on the pitch between the left-back initially struggling to settle and consistent injury problems.
But as Ridvan approaches yet another January of transfer links back to Turkish football, the man who kept him out of the team at Ibrox could play a crucial role in any exit.
Time up for Ridvan Yilmaz at Rangers?
Ridvan Yilmaz has had another season defined by injury problems and whilst Rangers fans do like the defender, plenty would rather cut their losses this winter.
Rangers paid a substantial initial £3.4m deal to sign Ridvan Yilmaz in the summer of 2022, with the deal rising to £5m on the activation of performance based add-ons (Sky Sports).
It’s fair to say that for such a substantial outlay, Rangers were expecting much, much more.
Yilmaz initially struggled to adapt to Scotland and was mollycoddled by Giovanni van Bronckhorst – a theme at Rangers in recent seasons – whilst injury has devastated his Ibrox career.
Having pulled up against Dynamo Kyiv at Hampden in August, Yilmaz had only just returned to the team a few weeks ago to impress against Spurs before missing the decisive penalty in the Premier Sports Cup defeat to Celtic.
Another drastic appearance from the bench in the defeat to St Mirren has seen fans begin to look beyond the left-back, who for all intents and purposes appears to be a wanted man in January.
And whilst we would ordinarily take those Turkish reports with a pinch of salt, the surrounding chatter suggests that there might indeed be something in this one.
Ex-Rangers star could hold key to Ridvan Yilmaz deal
Reports in Turkey have claimed that Trabzonspor are interested in signing Ridvan Yilmaz from Rangers.
It’s claimed that manager Şenol Güneş – who worked with Yilmaz at Besiktas and handed the left-back his debut with the Turkey national team – has ‘personally’ asked for a deal to be completed.
Trabzonspor aren’t the only ones being linked with Ridvan Yilmaz in Turkey either, with Galatasaray also mentioned in the nation’s press over the weekend.
Futbol Anadolu are claiming that the Istanbul giants have ‘re-established contact with Rangers’ over the left-back heading into the winter window.
But the links to Trabzonspor have also taken a fresh twist amid news surrounding Croatian left-back and former Rangers star Borna Barisic.
Barisic finds himself out of favour at Trabzonspor since a summer move to Turkey from Ibrox and the links to Ridvan Yilmaz come after a disastrous six months in the Pro League.
At the same time, reports are suggesting that NK Dinamo are interested in bringing Borna Barisic back to his home country.
Whilst the reports have only started making headlines in Scotland, they appear to originate in a report from Nacional dated 6th of December.
Barisic, whom Rangers signed from NK Osijek in 2018, had a brief stint and made one appearance for Dinamo in the 2015/16 season.
It’s claimed the former Rangers left-back is surplus to requirements at Trabzonspor and given the links to Ridvan Yilmaz, it’s certainly a situation to keep an eye on at Ibrox.
