Even before Calvin Bassey’s move to Ajax, Ross Wilson was said to be keeping tabs on a number of left-backs with one of those being Doron Leidner.
Idan Ben Abu, the 20-year old Israeli’s agent, has made a big claim after his client joined Greek side Olympiakos:
“He was very close to join Rangers.”
Besiktas were also said to have made a financially rewarding offer but it looks as though our involvement ended when we secured the signing of Ridvan Yilmaz from the Turkish giants who had been expected to join Eintracht Frankfut, the 21-year old is a wonder kid in his own right with six caps for his country.
As with any player in our squad, and any transfer, all this shows is that we will always have a few potential targets lined up rather than putting all our eggs into one basket. It also highlights that we should trust the recruitment team given where Yilmaz and Leidner were playing – our net is cast a lot wider than League 1 and the Championship nowadays.
Yilmaz has travelled to Belgium for our Champions League qualifier against Union Saint-Gilloise but I don’t think Giovanni van Bronckhorst will throw him in just yet with the left-back having only taken part in a few training sessions, however, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he plays some part at least.
We’ve paid a decent price for Yilmaz so it won’t be the same situation as we saw when Bassey first arrived or with Nathan Patterson when he deputised for James Tavernier – he isn’t here to sit on the bench for long, if at all.