We’ve already seen a few senior players getting their contracts extended for next season but one man who we should be tying down has gone under the radar this season.
Jon McLaughlin was signed to replace Wes Foderingham as Allan McGregor’s deputy on a two-year deal from Sunderland last summer and to say that he has had a successful first season is something of an understatement.
The former Hearts stopper was key in helping to break a club defensive record for consecutive clean sheets at the start of the season when Steven Gerrard’s number one was injured and to date he has conceded just three goals – one a penalty and one offside – in his 14 games for the club, registering 12 clean sheets in total.
Now, we have to be realistic, McGregor is one of, if not the greatest ever Rangers keeper, that isn’t an easy player to try to replace, it’s like finding another Ally McCoist or Brian Laudrup, that calibre of player simply doesn’t grown on trees so, when he does decide to hang up his gloves, expectations have to be tempered.
Vital Rangers Goal of the Season
Defoe v Livingston
Roofe v Standard Liege
Jack v Kilmarnock
Tavernier v Dundee United
McLaughlin has shown he has the mental strength to be a Rangers keeper, he’s also shown that he is perfect for how we like to play out from the back, he is so comfortable on the ball that he wouldn’t look out of place in the middle of defence, there are also things that he is better at than McGregor like coming for crosses or sweeping up outside his box to help defenders out.
The fact that his biggest weakness is that he isn’t Allan McGregor shouldn’t be held against him, give him a new contract, tell him he will be the next number one and stop us worrying about replacing the irreplaceable.