Jon McLaughlin has been at Rangers for two years now, has played in European games and Old Firm derbies, he’s also kept goal in a Scottish Cup semi-final and final, both times coming out on top and looking every inch a commanding goalkeeper.
When the first team sheet of the season was announced and the 34-year old was given the nod ahead of Allan McGregor, there was an instant divide in the Light Blues support; on one side, those who supported Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s decision and on the other, those who feel McLaughlin simply isn’t on the same level as his older team-mate.
This makes a hard job even harder, keeping goal for Rangers is pressurised as it is without taking the place of a genuine club legend, something that McLaughlin is fully aware of, as reported by Glasgow World:
“The pressure and scrutiny is maybe greater in my position with the man I’m playing ahead of.
“It’s ramped up even further in the eyes of a lot of people and it’s always going to be a talking point and something to be used.
“So of course I’d be lying if I said I didn’t know it was there in the background. Again, though, I knew it was coming.
“It’s no shock, no surprise and the life of a goalkeeper means you’ve got to have that thick skin.”
It would be totally different if the former Hearts stopper had come from another country, had cost a lot of money or was in his first season, but he isn’t. He has a solid clean sheet record at the club and that’s before looking at his style of play and how much better it suits our current system under Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
The right man is in place and he has done nothing to suggest that the pressure is going to get to him – not yet anyway.