As Rangers prepare for their two legged UEFA Conference League play off qualifiers, manager Derek McInnes has finally been handed some positive team news.
Having been knocked out of UEFA Europa League qualifying by Polish outfit Jagielliona, 3-2 on aggregate, attention now turns to Rangers' UEFA Conference League qualifier against Czech side, FK Jablonec.
It has been a rotten time of late for Rangers. They say it's better to be lucky than to be good, well at the moment it feels like Derek McInnes' side are unlucky and bad. In the defeat at home to Hibs, Youssef Chermiti suffered an ACL injury, whilst left back Tuur Rommens is set for a few weeks out.
However there is - at long last - some positive news and updates to somewhat lift the spirits. Indeed so, as McInnes has revealed in his Wednesday press conference (via Rangers Review) that James Penrice has already been added to the squad, and Kosta Nedeljkovic is also expected to be added, with the club waiting for official confirmation on him.
Good news, especially if the green light is given on Nedeljikovic. Rangers need all the help they can get. Against Jagielliona, McInnes essentially had to play a wing back formation and set up with wingers playing there. Now the team can play with two out and out full backs and just generally have a more balanced team.
These two games will be especially big for Penrice. He played in Europa League qualifiers back in 2024 with Hearts, but they lost out to (ironically) Czech side Viktoria Plzen. He has never actually played in a European competition before, with that the closest he managed to get.
Meanwhile, Nedeljkovic has played in the UEFA Champions League with Aston Villa, so already has that experience, which certainly could come in handy tomorrow evening and in the return leg too, should he be cleared to play, which touch wood he will be.
If he isn't, you wonder if McInnes will go to a wing back formation again, perhaps with Penrice on the left hand side and Dujon Sterling on the right hand side, which is at least a bit more balanced than when using the system before.
A huge night. Some will say that, considering it is the third European competition, the club are better off just sacking it off and focusing on trying to chase down Celtic in the league, but there is a possibility that Rangers could actually try to win it. You may laugh given the current state of the side, but Ibrox has had some big European nights in recent years, so who really knows what may happen.
