Glasgow Rangers dropped their first points of the Michael Beale era as the Ibrox side drew 2-2 with their Old Firm rivals yesterday.
The result leaves the Light Blues trailing the league leaders by nine points in the chase for the Premiership title, however, there were a lot of positives to take from the game and Beale will be pleased that his Gers side managed to stage a comeback after a woeful first half.
With the transfer window finally open, there is no doubt the new manager will look to bring in another couple of players to the club and they are already being linked with defender Dion Sanderson, something that could grant the 42-year-old the licence to ditch Filip Helander in the process.
Rangers eye swoop for Sanderson
The £14k-per-week Swede hasn’t featured for Rangers at all this season, and during his time at the club and will have missed a total of 104 matches before he plays again for the club again following his recent injury.
The centre-back is an excellent player, however, he is of no use to Beale on the treatment table and with his contract expiring in the summer, it could be a case of releasing him and moving on to someone younger and less injury prone.
At just 23 years of age, Sanderson could be that man. The young defender has performed well for Birmingham City this season while on a loan deal from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
He has demonstrated his potential by playing 24 times in the English Championship this term, averaging a Sofascore rating of 6.92/10, ranking him as the club’s sixth-best performer in 2022/23.
Sanderson has kept seven clean sheets and made 1.7 tackles, 1.4 interceptions, and 2.5 clearances per game all while winning 4.4 duels on average – a success rate of 55%.
These are excellent statistics for a young centre-back trying to make their way to the highest level and they also back up praise from his former manager at Sunderland, Lee Johnson.
He once lavished praise on the Wolves loanee, describing him as an “absolute Rolls-Royce”, something that appears to have boosted his confidence judging by his performances at St Andrew’s.
Beale doesn’t look like he will be afraid to make changes to the Rangers squad and one of his first acts might be to bring Sanderson to Ibrox while letting Helander go.
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