Derek McInnes has spent the summer of 2026 rebuilding Rangers from the top down. Fourteen new faces have arrived at Ibrox since he took charge in June, a spending spree that stretched to a club-record fee for Kevin Kelsy and reshaped almost every area of the pitch. But while the incoming business has dominated the headlines, a smaller and quieter story has been building in the background: a cluster of players already at the club whose contracts are due to run out at the end of the 2026-27 season, and whose futures at Ibrox will need to be resolved — one way or another — before next summer arrives
Some of these situations are straightforward. A handful are teenagers whose deals were always going to need revisiting around this point in their development. Others are considerably more complicated, tangled up in loan clauses, buy-option small print, and the kind of boardroom calculations clubs make when trying to avoid losing an asset for nothing. And a couple involve players whose Ibrox careers have already, in practical terms, ended — even if their contracts technically have not.
Here is every Rangers player whose contract is set to expire at the end of the 2026-27 campaign, what their situation looks like heading into the new season, and what may happen next
Of all the names on this list, John Souttar’s is the one that will generate the most discussion among supporters. The Scotland international arrived at Ibrox on a pre-contract from Hearts back in 2022, and while injuries have disrupted his time in Govan almost from the moment he walked through the door, he has still made close to 300 senior appearances across his career and remains a full international
Souttar penned a one-year extension to his existing terms earlier in 2026, buying the club a little more time before having to make a final decision on his long-term future. But that extension only delayed the reckoning rather than resolving it: his current deal now runs out at the end of the coming season, and after dropping out of Rangers’ starting XI in the closing stages of last term, there is little indication that a fresh contract is imminent.
The complicating factor is that Rangers do hold the option to extend his terms by a further year, taking his contract through to 2028. Whether that option gets exercised may hinge less on Souttar’s importance to McInnes’s plans and more on simple asset management — triggering the extension, even briefly, would allow the club to command a transfer fee for a player who might otherwise depart for nothing next summer. Given Souttar’s fitness record and his fall down the pecking order, it remains to be seen whether that is a price potential suitors would be willing to pay, or whether Rangers simply let the situation play out and lose him as a free agent.
Ross McCausland’s situation is a reminder of how quickly a promising academy story can turn into a contractual headache. The Northern Ireland international came through the Rangers youth ranks after joining from Linfield back in 2019, and has represented his country at senior level, but his development stalled enough at club level that he was sent out on loan to Aris Limassol in Cyprus for the 2025-26 season to get regular football.
He is back at Ibrox for pre-season training this year having shown, by his own actions, a clear desire to fight for a place in McInnes’s squad rather than push for another exit. But that ambition does not change the calendar: McCausland’s contract is due to expire at the end of the season, and unless he can force his way into regular contention quickly, or unless the club moves to tie him down on fresh terms, he is on course to leave Ibrox for nothing next summer having made 44 senior appearances in Rangers colours.
For a player who was long regarded as one of the more exciting academy graduates to emerge from Auchenhowie, that would represent a disappointing conclusion — though a permanent move elsewhere, on a free transfer, could also be the platform he needs to finally establish himself as a regular starter somewhere in senior football.
Few names better capture the risk of speculative transfer business than Jose Cifuentes. The Ecuadorian midfielder was signed in 2023 under former head coach Michael Beale on a four-year deal, in a move that was billed at the time as a shrewd piece of business plucking a South American international out of MLS. Instead, Cifuentes has spent more time away from Ibrox on loan than he has in the first team, with a spell at Toronto FC failing to produce a permanent transfer after the Canadian club opted against triggering their option to buy.
That rejection means Cifuentes could realistically be back in the Rangers squad this season, with 12 months still remaining on the contract he signed back in 2023. Whether McInnes has any use for him in a reshaped midfield that already includes Dan Neil, Cammy Devlin and the long-running Nicolas Raskin saga is another matter entirely. More likely, Rangers will look to move him on again — either permanently, if a suitable bid materialises, or via a further loan — rather than have him take up a squad slot heading into the final year of a deal that has, by any measure, not delivered value for the club
At the younger end of the spectrum sits Bailey Rice, a defender who has yet to fully break into the Rangers first-team picture but whose contract situation still needs monitoring. Rice is currently out on loan at Kilmarnock, gaining senior experience in the Scottish Premiership away from the pressures of Ibrox, and his existing terms are set to run out at the end of the season.
Unlike some of the more senior names on this list, though, Rangers do hold a straightforward option to extend Rice’s contract by a further year, which would buy the club time to assess how his loan spell develops before making any final decision on his long-term Ibrox future. Given his age and developmental stage, that option being triggered feels the far likelier outcome compared to Rice being allowed to simply run down his deal and leave for nothing — assuming his form at Rugby Park continues to justify the faith the club has shown in
Paul Nsio’s situation tells a similar story to McCausland’s, on a smaller scale. The 20-year-old enjoyed a breakout loan spell at Raith Rovers, good enough to be named the Kirkcaldy club’s young player of the year, and returned to Ibrox for pre-season training in the summer with genuine momentum behind him. Despite that, his first-team involvement at Rangers has been minimal — just three senior appearances to date — and his existing contract is due to expire at the end of the season.
Nsio’s loan development suggests he is a player worth persevering with, and another season out on loan, this time at St Mirren, will give the club and the player a clearer picture of where his level truly sits before any final contract decision needs to be made. If he continues to progress at the rate his Raith Rovers form suggested, a new deal at Ibrox would be the logical next step; if not, this could be another asset the academy pipeline fails to fully capitalise on.
Eighteen-year-old winger Josh Gentles rounds out the group of academy products whose deals expire at the end of the campaign. Gentles spent time training with the Rangers first-team squad during last summer’s pre-season schedule, a notable step up for a player of his age, before being sent out on loan to gain experience with both Raith Rovers and Alloa Athletic.
As with Bailey Rice, the key detail here is that Rangers hold an option to extend Gentles’s contract should they choose to exercise it, which gives the club flexibility rather than a hard deadline. For a teenage winger still finding his level in senior football, an extension while he continues to develop on loan appears the most sensible path, rather than allowing him to depart the academy system for nothing at such an early stage of
The youngest name on the list is 17-year-old Jack Caldwell, who signed his first professional contract with Rangers two years ago. That deal is now set to run its course at the end of the 2026-27 season, putting the club in the familiar position of needing to decide, over the course of the campaign, whether Caldwell has done enough at academy or B-team level to warrant a new long-term contract, or whether his path lies elsewhere.
Cases like Caldwell’s rarely make headlines, but they matter enormously to the long-term health of Rangers’ academy system. Getting these calls right — knowing which 17-year-olds to back with fresh terms and which to let move on — is as important to the club’s football strategy as any of the more glamorous senior deals that dominate transfer-window coverage.
Beyond the seven players whose contracts are genuinely set to expire, Rangers also have a cluster of new-signing loanees whose long-term Ibrox futures are similarly unresolved — not because their deals are running out, but because none of them currently carry a guaranteed permanent commitment beyond this season.
Ben Godfrey arrived on loan from Atalanta as one of the more eye-catching additions of the summer, a defender whose career has taken him from Norwich and Everton to a spell in Serie A before this switch to Scotland. His loan deal does include an option for Rangers to sign him permanently, and based on his early performances under McInnes there is a reasonable expectation that option edges closer to being taken up the more he impresses. But until it is formally exercised, Godfrey’s long-term Ibrox future technically remains as unresolved as any of the out-of-contract players above.
James Penrice presents a near-identical situation. The full-back joined on a loan arrangement that similarly carries an option to convert the move into a permanent transfer, and his form so far this season appears to be edging him closer to that outcome. Of all the conditional deals on Rangers’ books, Penrice’s looks among the most likely to be converted into something permanent, assuming his current level of performance is sustained.
Badredine Bouanani, meanwhile, arrived on deadline day from Stuttgart in a move that also carries a negotiated option to buy. The Algeria international, who came through Lille’s academy before his move to Germany, was unveiled as a marquee late addition to Rangers’ rebuilt attack, and it may take longer into the season before there is enough evidence to judge whether that buy-option will be triggered. Given the profile of the deal and the fee already invested in bringing him to Scotland on loan, Rangers will be hoping the decision on Bouanani’s long-term future is one that makes itself, rather than one that needs forcing.
The most unusual case of the four belongs to Kosta Nedeljkovic, whose contract situation is tied not to a straightforward buy option but to a conditional obligation to buy, triggered automatically once he reaches an agreed number of appearances for the first team. That structure removes an element of subjectivity from his situation — once he hits the relevant threshold, the permanent transfer is obligatory rather than optional — but it also means his long-term Rangers future is, for now, entirely dependent on team selection and fitness rather than any executive decision at boardroom level.
Taken together, these four loan deals mean that, strictly speaking, none of Godfrey, Penrice, Bouanani or Nedeljkovic are guaranteed to still be Rangers players once the 2026-27 season concludes — even though none of them appear on a traditional “out of contract” list in the way Souttar or Cifuentes do.
Taken as a whole, this list underlines just how much housekeeping McInnes and his recruitment team still have to do beneath the surface of a summer that has already been defined by high-profile incoming transfers. It is one thing to spend a club-record fee on Kevin Kelsy or negotiate a loan-with-option deal for a talent like Bouanani; it is another to manage seven separate contract situations, ranging from a senior Scotland international in Souttar to a 17-year-old academy prospect in Caldwell, all threatening to reach the same expiry date simultaneously.
The nature of the situations varies enormously. Souttar and Cifuentes represent, in different ways, contracts that have simply not delivered what the club hoped for when they were signed — a decorated international whose body has repeatedly let him down, and a South American midfielder whose signing now looks like a Beale-era misstep the club has been unable to shift permanently. McCausland and Nsio sit somewhere in the middle: talented academy products who have shown enough on loan to suggest their Rangers careers are not necessarily over, even as their current contracts run down. And Rice, Gentles and Caldwell are, for now, lower-stakes situations where the club retains the whip hand through extension options, buying time to make the right call as each player’s development continues.
Layer the four conditional loan deals on top of that, and it becomes clear that Rangers’ summer rebuild is not just about who arrives — it is also about which of the club’s newest recruits get converted into permanent, long-term parts of the squad, and which of the players already on the books get moved on, extended, or allowed to see out their final months in Govan.
For a club that has made no secret of its ambition to close the gap on Celtic and challenge for the Scottish Premiership title again under McInnes, getting these calls right matters just as much as any marquee signing. A club-record fee for a striker means little if the boardroom simultaneously loses assets like Souttar or McCausland for nothing through administrative drift, and equally, converting the right loan deals — Godfrey and Penrice look the most promising candidates — could end up being some of the shrewdest business Rangers do all year, even if neither generates the same headlines as the summer’s bigger-money arrivals.
As the season progresses, expect updates on several of these situations well before next summer’s deadline actually arrives. Souttar’s future, in particular, is likely to be a recurring topic given his profile and his fall down the pecking order, while the progress of loanees like Godfrey and Penrice will be watched closely by supporters hoping McInnes’s rebuild extends beyond this summer’s incomings and into smart, low-cost business on players already inside the building.
