Did Rangers make mistake not selling Lee Wallace this summer?

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Glasgow Rangers defender Lee Wallace has barely featured for the Ibrox side over the last few months.

It was reported by the Daily Mail towards the end of August that clubs in England and Scotland were keeping an eye on Lee Wallace’s situation at Rangers as he continues to find himself on the periphery of the squad.

It is no secret that the left-back’s future at Ibrox is uncertain following last season’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat. It is unclear what events took place at Hampden Park that day, but they would have certainly led many of the Ibrox faithful to expect Wallace to follow Kenny Miller out of the club in the summer.

But that expectation may have evaporated somewhat when the defender was included in some of Steven Gerrard’s squads at the start of this season, and it appeared that it may be possible that Wallace could be working his way back towards becoming something of an important player once again as he was brought on for the final couple of minutes of the Gers’ Scottish Premiership clash with Motherwell.

But since then, Rangers have announced their squad for the group-stages of the Europa League and have decided to leave Wallace out of the 45-man list – which arguably begs the question: why did Rangers not sell the former captain when they may have had the chance in the summer?

Wallace could, of course, feature more often in the domestic games as Gerrard looks to navigate his side through several competitions at once. But if he impresses in those fixtures, it could perhaps become slightly embarrassing that he is not able to play in Europe for the time-being.

His contract expires next summer – as reported by the Mail – so keeping him beyond this past window makes little sense if the Europa League omission is an indication that he will barely play over the next 12 months.

It may perhaps be that Gerrard has concerns over his fitness and does not feel that he will be fully up to speed until after the group-stages conclude, but if his absence is a sign that he will play nothing more than a very peripheral role during the coming months then perhaps Rangers made a mistake not letting him leave for a new challenge in the summer.