Derek McInnes has seen everything he needs to see. With Rangers’ pre-season programme now wrapped up following Sunday’s goalless draw against West Ham United at Ibrox, the new Gers boss heads into Friday’s Scottish Premiership opener against Dundee United with a clear picture of exactly who fits into his plans and, just as importantly, who does not. Having promised to give every member of his squad a genuine look over the course of pre-season, whether that be on the training pitches at Auchenhowie or out on the park in competitive fixtures, McInnes now appears to have made up his mind on a sizeable group of players who look set to be shown the door before the transfer window shuts.
It has been a summer of wholesale change at Ibrox already, with McInnes overseeing a significant overhaul of the first-team squad since his arrival, but that reshaping job is far from finished. Sources close to the club have made clear that further sales will be sanctioned in the coming weeks, both to free up space within an increasingly crowded squad and to generate the kind of finances needed to complete whatever incoming business Rangers still have planned before the window closes. It is a familiar pattern for clubs undergoing genuine squad rebuilds, and with McInnes now having had the benefit of a full pre-season to run the rule over his inherited group, the departures which follow are unlikely to come as much of a surprise to anyone who has followed Rangers’ warm-up campaign closely.
Chief among those facing an uncertain Ibrox future is John Souttar, whose situation has taken an increasingly dramatic turn over recent weeks. The Scotland international was left behind in Glasgow when the rest of the Rangers squad travelled to Spain for their warm-weather training camp earlier this month, a decision understood to have been made specifically to give the 29-year-old time and space to sort out his future away from Ibrox. That in itself represented a striking development given Souttar had signed a new contract at the club as recently as February, extending his deal through to the summer of 2027. Despite rejoining his teammates for training sessions back at Auchenhowie since the squad’s return from Spain, Souttar was once again left out of the matchday squad entirely for Sunday’s draw with West Ham, extending a run in which he has failed to feature in a single one of Rangers’ warm-up fixtures this summer. That sustained absence leaves little doubt about where he currently stands in McInnes’ pecking order.
Interest in Souttar has been considerable, if occasionally difficult to pin down with certainty. Sheffield United had emerged as the clear frontrunners for his signature, with Blades boss Chris Wilder said to be a long-standing admirer of the defender as he looks to strengthen his own backline ahead of the new Championship campaign, though more recent reporting suggests the Yorkshire club may have since stepped back from that pursuit as they weigh up alternative targets. Elsewhere, Souttar has also been strongly linked with a reunion with former Rangers boss Russell Martin, who has since taken charge at Leicester City and is understood to retain an admiration for the centre-back from their time working together at Ibrox, with the presence of Souttar’s brother Harry already at the King Power Stadium adding a further layer of intrigue to that particular storyline. Cardiff City have also been credited with an interest as Souttar’s situation continues to develop. Rangers, for their part, are understood to be demanding a seven-figure fee for a player who arrived on a free transfer back in 2022, meaning any sale would represent pure profit on the books, a detail that will only strengthen the club’s resolve to get a deal for the 29-year-old over the line before the new season gets fully under way. Souttar has made well over 130 appearances for Rangers since his arrival from Hearts and played a part in the club’s League Cup success in 2023/24, but a difficult campaign last time out, allied to McInnes’ clear reluctance to involve him in any pre-season fixtures, points firmly towards the conclusion that his time at Ibrox has run its course.
Souttar is far from the only defensive figure whose Rangers future looks to be drawing to a close. Clinton Nsiala did at least make the trip to Spain with the rest of the squad, offering him more of a genuine chance to impress McInnes during the pre-season camp than Souttar was afforded, but his path back into regular first-team contention looks set to be blocked regardless by the imminent arrival of Philadelphia Union defender Olwethu Makhanya. With Rangers understood to be closing in on a deal worth around £3million to bring the South African international to Ibrox, Nsiala’s chances of forcing his way into McInnes’ plans on a regular basis look increasingly slim, and a permanent departure of his own now appears to be the most realistic outcome as the club continues to reshape its central defensive options this summer.
Further forward, Ross McCausland’s difficult spell at Ibrox also looks to be edging towards a conclusion. The winger, who has struggled to make the impact many had hoped for since establishing himself in the first-team picture, has attracted interest from Portuguese side Casa Pia, who are understood to have already lodged an approach to take him to Cyprus on a permanent basis. For a player whose Rangers career has, by most reasonable assessments, failed to live up to early expectations, a fresh start away from the intense scrutiny of Ibrox may well represent the best outcome for all parties, and reports suggest that particular chapter could be brought to a close sooner rather than later.
Nedim Bajrami’s situation follows a similar pattern. The Albanian international has done little during pre-season training or in Rangers’ warm-up fixtures to suggest he has done enough to convince McInnes he deserves a role in the upcoming campaign, and that lack of a positive impression during the very window McInnes set aside to properly assess his inherited squad points firmly towards an exit of his own before the transfer deadline arrives. Like Souttar, McCausland and Nsiala before him, Bajrami’s departure would likely be a permanent one rather than another temporary loan arrangement, as Rangers look to trim a squad that has grown increasingly bloated following successive transfer windows of heavy investment.
Two further names round out the list of players whose Ibrox futures appear to be drawing to a close, even if their situations carry a slightly different flavour to those already mentioned. Lyall Cameron arrived at Rangers with a considerable reputation, having been considered one of the hottest young prospects in Scottish football before making the move to Govan, but that early promise has not translated into a foothold in the first-team picture under any of the various regimes he has served under since. Simply put, Cameron’s style of play does not appear to suit the system McInnes wants to implement at Ibrox, and with that in mind, a further loan move away from the club, or potentially even a permanent departure, looks to be firmly on the cards as the Rangers boss continues to shape his squad in his own image.
Then there is the curious and rather sad case of Jose Cifuentes, a player who has not featured for Rangers’ first team since the 2023-24 season yet somehow remains on the club’s books heading into a new campaign. Currently sidelined with a knee injury, Cifuentes’ continued presence at Ibrox feels less like a deliberate footballing decision and more a simple consequence of his fitness situation preventing any kind of transfer resolution up to this point. Once he returns to full fitness, it would be a considerable surprise if his long-term Rangers future extended much beyond finding him a new club, given how comprehensively he has fallen out of the first-team picture over the past two seasons.
Taken together, these six situations paint a clear picture of just how ruthless McInnes has been willing to be in assessing the squad he inherited at Ibrox. Having used the entirety of pre-season, both on the training ground and across Rangers’ varied fixture list against the likes of Raith Rovers, Dunfermline, Kaizer Chiefs, Johor Darul Ta’zim, Saint-Etienne and West Ham, to run the rule over every player at his disposal, the new head coach appears to have reached firm conclusions about who does and does not have a role to play in his Rangers going forward. That kind of clarity, while undoubtedly painful for the individuals concerned, is exactly the sort of decisive squad management that Ibrox supporters will want to see from a manager tasked with restoring stability after a chaotic twelve months that saw the club cycle through Russell Martin and Danny Röhl before McInnes’ own appointment this summer.
There is also a clear financial logic underpinning much of this activity. Rangers have already committed significant funds to strengthening across the pitch this summer, with the likes of Lawrence Shankland, Ross McCrorie, Ben Godfrey, Dan Neil, Ivor Pandur and Cammy Devlin all arriving at Ibrox, while further business, including the pursuit of a new right-winger and the expected arrival of Olwethu Makhanya, remains ongoing. Generating fresh income through the sale of players who no longer fit into McInnes’ plans will help offset that outlay considerably, easing any financial pressure on the club’s hierarchy as they look to back their new head coach in the remaining weeks of the transfer window. Souttar’s situation in particular offers a useful illustration of that logic in action, with any fee received for a player signed on a free transfer representing pure profit that can be reinvested elsewhere in the squad.
It is worth remembering, too, that this kind of squad cull, however ruthless it might appear from the outside, is a fairly standard part of life for any club going through genuine managerial transition. McInnes inherited a squad shaped by the priorities and preferences of at least two previous head coaches, and it was always likely that a proportion of that group would fail to fit the specific system and standards he wants to implement at Ibrox. What matters most for Rangers supporters heading into Friday’s trip to Tannadice is not necessarily who leaves, but rather the calibre of player brought in to replace them, and on that front, at least, McInnes appears to have already made considerable progress with a host of fresh faces arriving at the club since he took charge.
For the players concerned, though, the coming weeks are likely to be an uncomfortable period as they wait to discover where their futures lie away from Ibrox. Souttar’s situation remains the most closely watched given the level of interest from clubs south of the border, but Nsiala, McCausland, Bajrami, Cameron and Cifuentes will all be hoping suitable destinations can be found quickly, allowing them to find regular football elsewhere after falling out of favour at a club now moving rapidly in a different direction under its new head coach. Whatever happens with each individual situation, it looks certain that further departures from Ibrox are just around the corner, with McInnes seemingly having seen all he needs to see before finalising his squad for the season opener against Dundee United and, more importantly, for the demanding campaign that lies ahea
