Rangers rebuild was always going to be one that saw a high turnover of players but Leon Balogun’s arrival as the only centre-half was a strange one.
The Nigeria international returned to the club after a spell at QPR, where he was signed by Michael Beale, and is a relatively safe pair of hands.
Writing for The Rangers Review, Chris Jack has reiterated a narrative that has never sat right about Leon Balogun coming back to Glasgow.
Was Rangers signing of Leon Balogun ever about King’s injury?
The veteran defender arrived on exactly the same day that Leon King was revealed by the club as having an ankle injury which Jack explains was the key factor in Balogun’s signing:
“A Tweet from Rangers announced that Leon King had been diagnosed with an ankle injury that would sideline him for a “significant period of time” and Beale reacted quickly by signing Leon Balogun for the third time in his career following his departure from Queens Park Rangers.
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“As it transpired, King’s setback was not as serious as initially thought.”
Rangers announced that Leon Balogun has signed on exactly the same day that King’s injury was announced.
For an injury prone 35-year old defender, it must have been a quick medical.
Balogun was obviously a free agent and loves the club so terms would be easy to negotiate and no persuasion would be needed either.
But, we aren’t stupid.
It didn’t take long to work out that King wasn’t going to be out for long so why was Balogun’s signing heralded as clever to cover the youngster’s absence?
If Beale had said it was to allow King to go on loan it would have made sense.
If he had said it was because John Souttar, Ben Davies and Connor Goldson had all had injury issues the season before and he wanted another experienced option as backup, it would have made sense.
But, who rushes out to sign a new player to replace a fourth choice teenager with a 35-year old veteran on the same day that their injury is announced with three months of the transfer window left?
Leon Balogun will provide adequate cover for Rangers but his signing shouldn’t have been an excuse to deviate from plan A and sign a player like Auston Trusty or Jonathan Panzo to provide serious first-team competition.
And that is exactly what it looks like.