Rangers look set for a busy summer with Philippe Clement set to rebuild his team from back to front.
The manager needs to deal with a group of players who aren’t contributing but there is another within the squad that is seeing a lot of speculation.
Six Rangers players are out of contract in the summer with Philippe Clement having to sort out who is, and who isn’t, going to be staying.
Rangers futures up in air as Philippe Clement makes contract call
Jon McLaughlin is an obvious one.
Mason Munn and Jay Hogarth are proving that the future of the Gers number one jersey is in good hands and both will count as academy trained players too.
The two others, who are most likely to leave, are Ryan Jack and Kemar Roofe, for obvious reasons.
If a player can’t stay fit, they are wasting money sitting in the stands.
The greatest uncertainty seems to be around John Lundstram, Borna Barisic and Leon Balogun.
Not that Philippe Clement is going to let a contract situation he inherited derail Rangers:
“I think it is now very important we have the next two weeks for the games, that the players are focused on football. If they are busy now with those things it would be a bad thing here.
“If it was two weeks ago and there was a decision we had time to talk at that moment, now we need to put it on hold until the end of the season and to put everything on these four games.”
Rangers results are the priority for Clement
Clement is right to put his foot down.
He has voiced his frustration in the past about how many players could leave for free at the end of the season, but there is only so much he can do.
The priority now has to be the team rather than individual needs with an outside chance of a treble and a very good chance of a cup double.
All the players who could leave have made major contributions at some point in their Ibrox careers, even McLaughlin was key to winning a Scottish Cup and qualifying for the Champions League.
The good thing is, they are also all senior players that can be trusted.
Philippe Clement will have no doubts about any of them letting Rangers of him if they are called upon.
If anything, they will be more likely to want to go out on a high.
With five games left of the season, their time in Light Blue could be coming to an end.
