RANGERS CONFIDENTIAL: Major blow as key January transfer target is ruled off-limits to leave hole in defence

Nathan Patterson will not be returning to Rangers on loan in January.

Sold to Everton for £11million in January 2022, the 23-year-old has been touted as a potential solution to Philippe Clement’s right-back issues.

Captain James Tavernier is now 33 and has flitted in and out of the starting XI in recent weeks.

Dutchman Neraysho Kasanwirjo has deputised for the skipper, but now faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines with an injury.

Dujon Sterling is another option, but some still think he should be used in a holding midfield role.

Last seen in first-team action for Everton on April 15, Patterson has overcome a long-term injury issue but can’t get into the team ahead of 39-year-old Ashley Young.

While the Scotland right back could go out on loan in search of first-team games, Mail Sport understands that he will not be returning to Scottish football.

A short-term switch to another club in England looks a likelier option for Patterson, who has been an unused substitute in each of Everton’s last five games.

It has been a frustrating period for Patterson, whose story perfectly illustrates why clubs such as Rangers need to take big money when it’s on the table.

The full back’s lucrative transfer from Ibrox nearly three years ago didn’t please every supporter. We’ll never know if retaining him might have made a difference as Rangers came up just short in both the title race and the Europa League that season.

But Patterson’s luck since then underscores how unpredictable the game can be — and why any club operating in a restricted financial environment has to consider any reasonable proposition to sell an asset.

If it wasn’t for bad luck since moving to Merseyside, the right back would have had no luck at all. He played just one game for his new club in the second half of 2021-22, made 21 appearances the following year and featured 26 times last term.

But with ankle, knee and thigh problems hampering his progress, the move has been very much stop-start.

Patterson’s last appearance was in a 6-0 loss against Chelsea, when he sustained his latest injury and was ruled out of the Euros.

Happily, he’s now back in contention but it looks like he’s got a long way to go before convincing Everton manager Sean Dyche of his worth.

Stewart’s appointment set to further improve Rangers’ charm offensive

New Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart won’t have to work too hard to develop relationships with senior figures in Scottish football. He already knows most of them.

After leaving Manchester United in April, the Aberdonian travelled to Euro 2024 in Germany where he broke bread with members of the SFA and SPFL boards.

Friendly with Hearts CEO Andrew McKinlay — another name mentioned for the Ibrox hot seat — Stewart made a positive impression on senior figures on Hampden’s sixth floor.

Rangers are also expected to announce Greenock-born Conservative peer Malcolm Offord as their new chairman in the coming weeks.

The two new appointments look likely to continue the recent improvement in relations between Rangers and the SPFL after a series of challenges and queries over corporate governance at the league.

Since news broke of Stewart’s talks with the hierarchy at Ibrox, every detail of his life and work has been examined, from his legal background to his job with TEAM Marketing and his time at Old Trafford.

Less well-known is his role at Glasgow University back in the day, when he set up a student orchestra that still performs two concerts a year.

According to back copies of university magazine Avenue 56, Stewart was ‘a founder member of the Kelvin Ensemble, in which he played the French horn’.

Maybe the Union Bears will have him down the front of the Copland for some musical accompaniment at the next home game.

Beale’s comments about ‘snakes’ really do take some swallowing

Scottish football doesn’t yet have an award for the biggest brass neck any individual has shown over the course of a season.

But if a prize were to be put up now for that particular accolade, the inaugural shortlist would contain just one name.

Speaking before Steven Gerrard offered him his latest job with Saudi side Al-Ettifaq last week, former Rangers first-team coach Michael Beale decided to put the world to rights.

‘Around a couple of the moves I’ve had as a manager, I saw loads of snakes and people come out of the woodwork. And I didn’t like it,’ he told the Inside the Academy podcast.

‘It made me uncomfortable, and perhaps I would’ve made better decisions if those people weren’t around, but that’s for another time.

‘Ultimately, I’m very, very fortunate that I’ve been a manager at QPR, Glasgow Rangers, 52,000, Sunderland, 44,000 in the Championship.

‘I’ve worked in the Premier League, I’ve worked in Serie A and I’ve worked in over 60 games in Europe across the Europa League and Champions League.

‘So, I have 257 games in the system, 77 games as a manager and at 44 years of age I feel like I’m at the start of my career. In that sense, I still feel like I’m a young coach.’

Just to recap, this is the man who turned up at Ibrox when Giovanni van Bronckhorst was under pressure two years ago, happily posing for pictures with fans in the stadium and later at a nearby pub.

Beale, naturally, claimed all that had no part in the Dutchman being fired and him then getting his job. Many others take a different view.

Barron takes huge inspiration from unstoppable force Doak

The rise and rise of Ben Doak was the significant talking point of the recent international break and it has certainly offered encouragement to Rangers midfielder Connor Barron.

Barron was in the Scotland squad for the Nations League double-header with Croatia and Poland, but had to content himself with a place on the bench. He is still waiting for his first senior cap after playing all the way through the age levels for his country.

However, he admits that watching Doak destroy Croatia’s Josko Gvardiol in Scotland’s 1-0 win and then repeat the dose against Poland in Warsaw by setting up John McGinn’s opener has reiterated that there is a clear route into the national team for players like him.

Middlesbrough’s Tommy Conway, another counterpart of Barron’s with the Under-21s, was also given his first start in dark blue against Croatia and that has not been missed by the 22-year-old Ibrox favourite.

Asked about those he has grown up with in Scotland’s youth categories, he replied: ‘More recently, Ben Doak, Tommy Conway, Cieran Slicker, Max Johnston and Josh Doig.

‘There’s not many that will make it all the way through the age groups. It’s just like that in football. It’s hard.

‘But as you come up through the Under-21s, it is good to see that the pathway is there and that good opportunities are being given out.’

Speaking in the SFA’s official match programme, Barron detailed his desire to break into the strongest area of the Scotland side — their midfield engine room.

‘It is obviously something I dreamed of as a kid, to be part of the national team,’ he said. ‘Training with the boys is one thing, but you want to be on the pitch. That’s the second thing I am aiming for.’

Barron is clear on his desire to go to a major finals with Scotland, having missed out on the squad for Euro 2024.

Asked what his ambitions were at international level, Barron said: ‘The squad has shown it has got the ambition and it’s got the players to be successful, so to be part of a team that qualifies for a major tournament and go as far as we can.’