One player who, by the time Giovanni van Bronckhorst took over at Rangers, looked as though they would be heading out the door was Scott Arfield, however, the 33-year old has enjoyed a stunning return to form and appears to be first pick in the middle of midfield alongside Glen Kamara.
Arfield has always been known for his running power and with his advancing years, many thought that he could no longer put in the same miles but in the last few games he has shown that he can still go box-to-box and offer support at both ends of the park.
With his contract expiring at the end of the season it looked like this would be his last until his recent return to form, with former Gers gaffer, Alex McLeish believing that his time might not yet be up at his boyhood club, as told to Football Insider:
“I do see a renaissance in Scott in that Giovanni trusts him.
“Let’s be honest, he’s a very trustworthy player, but it seems that Giovanni sees something in Scott that is important to the team.
“He’s a grafter, he’ll go forward, he’ll check back, he’ll cover people. He does a lot of the things that we deem ugly.
“He’s also got a knack of getting forward and getting into good positions from deep positions.
“I think Scott Arfield is a player who the whole team really appreciate. I believe he’ll (Van Bronckhorst) definitely try and nail him down and keep a guy like that in the squad.”
As we saw against Dundee United, two sitting midfielders just doesn’t work, John Lundstram and Kamara were stepping on each others’ toes – there was a noticeable improvement in our attack when Arfield dropped deeper.
I think McLeish is right, to start off with I thought he would be allowed to leave to free up space in the squad and on the wage bill but Van Bronckhorst’s system and philosophy suits him perfectly and there is no reason why he shouldn’t be given an extra year.
Juninho Bacuna is a similar type of central midfielder though and when/if things settle down I’d still like to see him playing alongside Kamara, he offers the same type of running threat from deep but is a better ball carrier and is just as capable of getting on the scoresheet, something that will help our efforts at building play through the middle.
A lot will depend on any potential targets and what our transfer budget will be in the summer but there are worse players to have around the training ground and match day squad both on and off the pitch.