Why Rangers did the right thing by offloading Matt Polster

According to a report from the Daily Record, defender Matt Polster has left Scottish giants Rangers to sign for MLS outfit New England Revolution. The defender has completed a £350,000 transfer to the MLS, signing a two-and-a-half-year deal.

The 27-year-old Polster started out at the academy of Colorado Rapids before joining SIU Edwardsville Cougars in 2011. During his time at the club, he had loan spells away at Victoria Highlanders and Chicago Fire Premier.

The full-back moved to Chicago Fire permanently in 2015 and spent four years at the club before Rangers snapped him up in January 2019 on a free transfer.

Polster hardly got a look-in into the starting XI at Rangers

Since joining the Gers, the one-cap USMNT international struggled to make his way into the starting XI under Steven Gerrard. The full-back spent his entire time with the Scottish heavyweights as cover for star man and captain James Tavernier.

Having spent 18 months at the Ibrox Stadium, the 27-year-old Polster managed just 10 appearances, nine of which came in the 2019/20 season. He managed just one assist in the process.

In the 29 matches that Rangers played in the shortened Scottish Premiership season in 2019/20, Polster did not make it to the matchday squad on 20 occasions. Out of the nine times he was in the squad, he just started three matches. This indicated his standing within the squad.

Tavernier, on the other hand. featured 45 times across all competitions, scoring three goals and assisting 15 more. Considering that kind of form, it would have been near impossible for Polster to establish himself as a regular at the Ibrox.

Furthermore, the player himself was keen on securing an exit from the club, as per the report. So it wouldn’t have made much sense for the club to keep hold of a player whose heart was elsewhere. Doing so could have affected the atmosphere and the morale within the squad.

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Verdict

While Rangers could have done with having depth at right-back, Polster was keen on securing an exit as there was no scope for him to become the first choice. So offloading him was the right decision as keeping a player with no wish to continue at the club could very well have proven counterproductive for the club.