John Souttar was the first player through the door after agreeing a pre-contract with the club at Ibrox in January 2022, to join the club from Hearts on a free transfer at the end of his contract at Tynecastle.
But as we head into a crunch seven-week period of the season before the World Cup, with Rangers looking to overcome a shaky period in their campaign, the 26 year old is nowhere to be seen.
Souttar has made just one first-team appearance for the club to date, where he played 67 minutes and picked up a yellow card in the opening day win over Livingston.
Since then, nothing. No appearances on the substitutes bench, no starts, no involvement in the match day squads. nothing.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst confirmed on Friday that the Scotland international will not be seen before the World Cup, meaning he is ruled out 2023 at least before we’ll see him in a Rangers shirt.
The deal was made in January because of his excellent form, but the warning signs that his body was made of sugar paper were there for all to see.
Despite his relatively young age Souttar has suffered a rupture achilles twice throughout his career, while hip and ankle problems saw him miss a combined two and a half years of action too.
Yet the board and manager decided to let Leon Balogun leave the club in order to bring Souttar in, while Calvin Bassey ended up in Amsterdam when Ajax spent £20m on him after his breakthrough season.
Ben Davies also came in at centre-back, while Leon King was promoted to the first-team, but the arrival of Souttar has essentially been entirely pointless. If anything the squad is weaker with his signing, because we’re constantly a man light.
His wages aren’t likely to be particularly high, because they’re not in Scottish football, but it’s hard not to think that the money being spent on him couldn’t be better spent elsewhere.
Whether it was given to Bassey to try and convince him to stay, or given to one of Ryan Kent or Alfredo Morelos to get them to extend their contract before it expires next summer.
It’s been a waste of time and a waste of money to have Souttar as part of the Ibrox squad and at this point fans and the manager need to basically forget he’s here to move forward, and look to move him on as soon as possible to really take strides forward.