As Rangers announce the signing of £4m Liverpool defender Ben Davies, it must surely signal the end of Jack Simpson’s Ibrox career.
The only thing is, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be easy to ship the ex-Bournemouth defender on.
Rangers – if not potentially Jack Simpson himself – must be lamenting the decision to agree a deal when the defender has barely kicked a ball in 18 months.
To make matters more complicated Simpson – who at 25 has made only 50 first team appearances in his career – is currently contracted to the Ibrox side until 2025.
This means that Rangers and the club’s supporters face another six transfer windows, or three seasons, with the defender hanging around without seriously contributing.
Rangers face Jack Simpson transfer challenge
We don’t know what happens behind the scenes at Rangers but Jack Simpson surely cannot be happy with his role at Ibrox at present.
The defender has made 14 appearances in total for Rangers since joining the club at the end of the winter window in 2021, playing only three times under Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
With Ben Davies now in through the door, and Connor Goldson, John Souttar, Filip Helander and even Nikola Katic – around whom doubts also exist this summer – ahead of him, Jack Simpson will be lucky to play even that if he sticks around next season.
That’s before we mention the emergence of young defender Leon King and the promise of a pathway into the first-team.
The challenge now for Rangers is finding someone to take a permanent punt on the ex-Bournemouth defender rather than a stop-gap loan solution.
But even a part-time deal is better than having Jack Simpson taking up a place in the squad and wage bill without contributing to Rangers’ season.
For all the praise Ross Wilson has been getting as of late – and much deserved too – the decision to hand Jack Simpson such a long-term contract has to go down as one of his most questionable decisions.
For Jack Simpson himself, no-one can blame him for signing the contract but for the good of his own career, surely it’s time to look elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Rangers are set to bank a guaranteed £19.6m as one player sets the benchmark for the Ibrox club’s future business.
