Manager says club are monitoring £4m Rangers man, potential January switch

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Rangers summer signing Ridvan Yilmaz is being targeted by Galatasaray after a poor start to his Ibrox spell, with the Turkish club’s manager Okan Buruk confirming that his club are monitoring the Gers left-back ahead of January.

Yilmaz, 21, joined Rangers from Besiktas in the summer for a fee of £4million. It comes after clocking up 62 senior appearances for Gala’s Turkish rivals – having a hand in 11 goals. But he has been back-up to Borna Barisic at Ibrox.

Indeed, he has only featured in seven games so far – starting only once in the Premiership. He is likely to start on Thursday when Rangers restart their domestic campaign against Hibernian. Barisic is still in Qatar with Croatia.

But his short stint in Scotland could come to a close before it has even properly started. Gala, who sit second in the Turkish SuperLig behind Fenerbahce, claim that his club are monitoring Yilmaz – as well as two other potential signings.

“As yet, we haven’t made a formal move for any player, but we are watching a lot of them. With regards to the ones mentioned – Rıdvan Yılmaz, Halil Akbunar and Deniz Undav – they are all good players.

“We are evaluating all of them. We have all their matches followed. Perhaps things will become more clear in January, but we have not had a meeting with any of them at the moment,” Buruk said, as per the Evening Times.

Rangers signing Yilmaz targeted by Galatasaray after poor Ibrox start

It is an interesting one. It comes after his agent Necdet Ergezen, discussed his future ahead of January. He said that Yilmaz would not be returning to Turkey so soon, and is keen to make a go of it at Rangers – rather than admit failure.

But Barisic remains first choice. He is likely to continue to do so given he starred during Michael Beale’s time at Rangers under Steven Gerrard. A return could prove more tempting come January, if his game time does not increase.

It would be a shock, though, to see Yilmaz return so quickly after hardly being given a proper go at Rangers. Surely, Rangers will look to give Yilmaz more time to integrate himself at Rangers – especially, under a new manager.