As Lille’s reasoning for a permanent transfer trigger suggests reason, Rafael Fernandes is stuck in Rangers cold storage.

Since signing a loan transfer from the Ligue 1 team, the club’s sole January acquisition has seldom been seen on the field.

Unforgiving Only half an hour into Rangers’ match against Kilmarnock, Barry Ferguson pulled off Clinton Nsiala. The team’s sole January addition, Rafael Fernandes, is still on the bench as Ridvan Yilmaz replaces the struggling defender.

The 22-year-old center-back has only made three appearances since leaving Lille on loan and has not made an impression. His sole start occurred during Queen’s Park’s thrashing of him in the Scottish Cup, when then-manager Philippe Clement removed the Portugal youth cap after sixty minutes.

With Yilmaz moving to right-back and captain James Tavernier at the center of the Light Blues’ defense following Nsiala’s dismal performance at Rugby Park, Ferguson doesn’t seem to have much faith in Fernandes, despite the fact that he’s just in the door.

According to reports, Rangers had snubbed interest in the defender from Germany, Spain, and other parts of France when Fernandes made his loan transfer to Glasgow.

They also had the option to purchase the player as part of the agreement. Fernandes’ arrival was heralded by Clement, who acknowledged that he would not immediately include him in the starting lineup after signing. “We believe in his potential,” he stated. He is not going to be immediately prepared. In the past year, he hardly played.

However, the scouting team witnessed him play in Portugal the previous year. I seen other games like that as well. He is displaying a number of qualities. He is young, athletic, powerful, quick, and capable of passing the ball well. Players who trained with him in Lille also provide us with useful knowledge.

However, Fernandes maintained that increasing his playing time in the Scottish Premiership was the most crucial thing for him: “The first interaction was really good, the players made me feel comfortable and asked me about the small things.”

I had a great first encounter with them. The most important thing for me right now is to get back on the field and play football, which I am eager to do. However, instead of playing a player who signed to Lille from Arouca for £2.5 million last summer, Clement chose to stick with Robin Propper and Nsiala in his backline, with John Souttar having a brief runout after recovering from injury. Fernandes was actually left off of the Europa League roster.

“Rafa Fernandes understood why he wasn’t in the European squad,” the Belgian clarified. Since he is still a young player, he has plenty of league and cup games still to play and time to mature.

But that hasn’t happened, and it may be evident why he hasn’t played much because Lille has already stated that they expect him to return at the conclusion of the season, even though Rangers still have the option to purchase him. “Rafael was injured a lot,” Lille president Olivier Letang told L’Equipe, reaffirming that the team still believes he will succeed in France.

Although he was injured frequently and the work process and intensity were likely different, I still have a lot of respect for the club he was at [Arouca]. “We believe in him, but he needs playing time. It was evident to those who watched the reserve squad that Rafael Fernandes was far superior to the others.

Furthermore, Letang seemed to downplay the likelihood that the purchase option would be exercised, stating that it was merely included to finalize the agreement with Rangers: “A straight loan was not an option in the discussions, otherwise the club would have been less inclined to sign him.”

We chose to make this decision in order to provide them playing time because it was really essential. Will Ferguson give Fernandes a chance or remain with Nsiala and Propper if the Ligue 1 team anticipates Rangers rejecting their offer to purchase and Fernandes returning in January?

The defender is quickly running out of games to secure a long-term contract in Glasgow, but only time will tell.