John Souttar stood in the tunnel at Ibrox and stared out at the pitch that had once felt like home, the noise of the crowd no longer hitting him the same way it used to, the cheers now sounding distant, almost like they were meant for someone else, and maybe that was the truth he was slowly being forced to accept because everything around him had changed and the one thing that hurt the most was not even the criticism or the mistakes people talked about but the silence from the manager, the silence that spoke louder than any words ever could as Danny Rohl continued to leave him out again and again and again and in football there is nothing more painful than feeling invisible when you know you still have something left to give
At 29 years old John Souttar should have been at the peak of his powers, a defender with experience, strength and leadership, someone who could guide a backline through pressure moments and title battles, but instead he found himself watching from the bench as Rangers entered the most important part of their season and that reality did not come overnight, it built slowly, game by game, decision by decision, until it became impossible to ignore that something had broken between player and manager and once that kind of trust is gone in football it rarely ever comes back
For four seasons at Rangers Souttar had lived a career full of ups and downs, moments where he looked like a rock at the back followed by games where everything seemed to fall apart, inconsistency becoming the one word that followed him everywhere, whispered by fans, discussed by pundits, repeated in headlines, and even though he worked hard to silence those doubts they always returned because at a club like Rangers there is no hiding place and every mistake feels ten times bigger than it actually is
There were times when he looked like he had finally found stability, when he strung together strong performances and reminded everyone why the club trusted him in the first place, but just when it seemed like he had turned a corner something would happen, a lapse in concentration, a difficult match, a poor result, and suddenly all the questions would come back again and that cycle slowly started to define his time at the club whether he liked it or not
Still he kept fighting because that is what players do, they train, they push, they wait for their chance and when the 2025-26 season reached its critical stage Souttar believed he would be part of it, he believed he had done enough to be trusted when it mattered most, but football can be cruel and sometimes belief is not enough when decisions are made behind closed doors and once Danny Rohl started to look elsewhere there was very little Souttar could do to change the direction things were heading
The shift was clear and it was brutal, from being a regular starter in early March to becoming almost completely forgotten in the final weeks of the season, one appearance in six league games, no involvement in the post split fixtures, and more painfully sitting on the bench game after game as an unused substitute while others were given opportunities ahead of him and every time the team sheet was released his name being missing from the starting eleven felt like another small confirmation that his time was running out
The numbers from his season told a story that was not entirely negative, over 1900 minutes played, a pass accuracy above ninety percent, strong duel success rates both on the ground and in the air, stats that suggested he was still capable of contributing at a high level, but football is not just about numbers and sometimes decisions are based on feeling, on trust, on what a manager sees in training or believes in his system and whatever Rohl saw or did not see in Souttar it was enough for him to move in a different direction
Instead the manager began to experiment with new defensive partnerships, giving chances to Nasser Djiga and Emmanuel Fernandez, hoping that something different might spark life into a team that was struggling to keep its title hopes alive, but the gamble did not pay off, results went the wrong way, defeats started to pile up, and Rangers watched their ambitions slip away in frustrating fashion while questions grew louder about the choices being made
And yet even as the team suffered and the pressure increased Rohl did not turn back to Souttar, he did not bring him in to steady things, did not give him the chance to prove himself again, and that decision said everything because managers in difficult moments usually fall back on players they trust and the fact that Souttar was not one of those players anymore revealed a truth that could no longer be hidden
For Souttar it must have been a deeply frustrating experience, sitting there knowing that things were not working on the pitch but still being overlooked, wondering what more he could have done or whether his fate had already been decided long before those final games arrived and in football once a player starts asking those questions it usually means the end is near
The situation also placed Rangers in a difficult position because Souttar is not just any player, he is an experienced international defender with value and with his contract running until May 2027 the club has to make a decision about what comes next, whether to keep a player who is no longer in the manager’s plans or to move him on while they can still receive a decent transfer fee and in modern football those decisions are often made quickly and without sentiment
The upcoming summer window now feels like a turning point, a moment where both player and club may agree that it is time to go separate ways, not necessarily because Souttar lacks quality but because sometimes a change of environment is needed for a career to move forward again and for Rangers it could be an opportunity to refresh their defensive options and build something new under Rohl
What makes it even more certain is the backing Rohl appears to have from the board, despite the disappointing end to the season and the frustration among supporters the club hierarchy seems ready to continue with him, believing that he is the man to take Rangers forward and if that is the case then his vision for the squad will shape everything that happens next and unfortunately for Souttar that vision does not seem to include him
At 37 years old Rohl represents a new direction, a different way of thinking, a manager who wants to build his own team with players who fit exactly what he wants and when a coach is given that level of support it usually means big changes are coming, new signings, new partnerships, new ideas and for players who are already on the edge of the squad it becomes even harder to find a way back in
For Souttar the idea of staying and accepting a role as a backup or unused substitute does not make much sense at this stage of his career, he is still in his prime years for a centre back, still capable of playing regularly at a high level and sitting on the bench week after week would only slow him down, reduce his confidence and possibly even affect his place at international level and those are risks no player wants to take if they have other options available
There is also the emotional side of it, the connection between player and club that slowly fades when opportunities disappear, the feeling of being pushed aside after years of service and effort and even though football is a business it is still driven by human emotions and pride and for someone like Souttar who has given so much to Rangers walking away might be difficult but staying under these conditions could be even harder
Fans will have mixed feelings about the situation because Souttar has always been a player who divides opinion, some appreciate his strengths, his aerial ability, his passing, his experience while others focus on the mistakes, the inconsistency, the moments where he looked vulnerable and in a club as demanding as Rangers those opinions can shape how a player is viewed and ultimately how decisions about their future are made
But beyond the debates and the statistics there is a simple reality, football moves fast and when a player falls out of favour the path back is rarely straightforward and in Souttar’s case it now feels almost impossible especially with a manager who has already shown through his actions that he is looking elsewhere
As the season comes to an end and the summer approaches the focus will shift to transfers, negotiations and decisions that could define the next chapter for both Rangers and Souttar and while nothing is officially confirmed yet all the signs point in one direction, a quiet but inevitable separation that has been building for months
For Rangers it will be about rebuilding, learning from the mistakes of this campaign and finding the right balance in the squad to challenge again, for Rohl it will be about proving that his choices are the right ones and that he can deliver success with the players he trusts and brings in and for Souttar it will be about finding a new place where he feels valued again, where he can play regularly and remind people of the defender he knows he can be
Sometimes in football endings are loud and dramatic filled with headlines and controversy but other times they are quiet, almost unnoticed, a player slowly disappearing from the team sheet until one day he is simply gone and this feels like one of those moments, a story not defined by one big event but by a series of small decisions that led to an inevitable conclusion
And so as the lights continue to shine on Ibrox and the crowd keeps singing Souttar’s future seems to be drifting further away from the club he once called home, not because of one single mistake or one single decision but because of a combination of factors that together have closed the door on his time there and opened another somewhere else where a new chapter is waiting to begin
