Rangers forgotten man, Clinton Nsiala has broken his silence after the sacking of head coach Russell Martin on Sunday evening.
The French defender, 21, was signed by Phillipe Clement last summer from Italian giants AC Milan, where he had captained their youth side and made 13 appearances in his maiden campaign at Ibrox, scoring once against Fraserburgh in the Scottish Cup.
Despite some shaky performances, Queen’s Park at Ibrox, and Kilmarnock away, where he was hooked in the first half by interim boss Barry Ferguson, Nsiala did have some promising performances, such as a man-of-the-match showing against Aberdeen in the league, in which he provided an assist.
A ball playing, left-sided central defender, many expected him to be a big part of Martin’s plans when the former Southampton boss arrived this summer, but he was quickly bombed out of the first team set up with Martin saying: “He needs to play at this stage of his career”, and confirmed he was not part of his plans and would be allowed to move on.
No move transpired before the end of the window, with Nsiala rejecting a loan move to Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv at the last minute and he has yet to be seen this season in a first-team squad.
He posted various pictures on his Instagram account earlier today, some showing him playing in a Rangers strip last season and one captioned: “The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.”
This shows he feels vindicated in his decision to remain at Ibrox, and seemingly believed Martin would be away in due course, and he simply had to bide his time.
He had previously posted other messages online since his removal from the first team setup. Captioning a photo of him training at the Rangers Training Centre with the caption “Still Here”, and another message to the supporters saying: “Still here, still fighting! Thanks for all your support.”.
Other previous posts also contained comments such as “progress isn’t a straight line” and “remember who you want to be.”
With a new boss set to be installed over the next week, rumoured to be a returning Steven Gerrard, will Nsiala get a chance to rebuild his Ibrox career now that Martin has departed? Time will tell, but the signs are now more positive for the young defender’s Ibrox future.