Rangers left-back Ridvan Yilmaz will not be happy at his lack of game time at Ibrox this season.
That is according to former striker Frank McAvennie, who was speaking to Football Insider about the latest news from Ibrox during the international break.
Yilmaz signed for Rangers from Besiktas in July for a fee of £3.4m, which could eventually rise to £5.3m with add-ons.
The 21-year-old may have been excited about making the move from Istanbul to Glasgow, but he has found opportunities limited this season, making just three appearances for Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side in all competitions, according to Transfermarkt.
And McAvennie believes that Yilmaz will currently be unhappy with the way things are panning out for him at Ibrox.
He said: “As I always say, and I can’t stress it enough, competition is the best thing you can have in the dressing room.
“If you’ve got somebody pushing you, like [Borna] Barisic, he’s stepped up. He’s not giving his place up, which is great, and Yilmaz has to accept it.
“He’s not getting a game, he’s obviously not happy. He’ll get a game, but he’s obviously not doing it in training and that’s why Gio’s not playing him.
“It’s a strange one, but fair play to Barisic, because he’s stepped up and made sure the manager can’t leave him out, which is what you need in a team.
“Yilmaz has come in and nobody knows if he’s any good. He’s clearly not doing it in training or the manager would be desperate to put him in.”
TIF Thoughts on McAvennie’s comments…
We think that McAvennie is right to suggest that Yilmaz will currently be frustrated with his lack of playing time, but we do feel that the six-time Turkey international would have known that it wasn’t going to be a simple task to become a Rangers regular.
Unfortunately for the 21-year-old, Borna Barisic has been in superb form this season, earning himself an average SofaScore rating of 7.44 for the current Premiership campaign – ranking him as the Gers’ second-best performing player behind James Tavernier.
Therefore, we think that whilst Yilmaz’s frustrations will be understandable, it’s difficult to see how dropping Barisic could be justified at this moment in time.