Rangers' 11th signing of the summer looks to solve a question that has been hanging over the club’s summer recruitment to-do list: how do you replace a player like James Tavernier?
Kosta Nedeljkovic, the Serbian 20-year-old who has joined from Aston Villa on loan with an obligation to buy, is a player club sources suggest has been tracked for some time, with formal contact stretching back to March. Although the Ibrox outfit now have three players regarded first and foremost as right-backs, both Dujon Sterling and Ross McCrorie can cover across the back four, primarily at centre-back.
Speaking at his press conference on Wednesday, McInnes, interestingly, only referenced Sterling and Nedeljkovic when discussing the right-back slot, adding that the club were not currently looking to prioritise another addition in defence. It does, at face value, ask a question of where McCrorie's minutes will arrive just weeks after he moved back to Ibrox.
"It was a position we identified at the start of pre-season. We looked at various options. The club had been reliant on Dujon, who has had his history of injuries, so we wanted to bring in a different type of full-back," McInnes said.
"I've got a high opinion of Dujon, but with Kosta you get a player similar to Vanya in a full-back position: real enthusiasm, athleticism and the ability to get up and down the pitch. He shows good quality and a real eagerness to play the role.
"As a young player, there will still be areas to improve, but we're looking forward to helping him develop. His eagerness to come here was clear in the conversations we had with him a few weeks ago. It was something we were always keen to do."
While Olwethu Makhanya and Manny Fernandez can both play as left-sided centre-backs, neither are left-footed. The attempts to sign Sankhoun Diawara that preceded Makhanya's move from Philadelphia Union suggest one missing profile from the current defensive options available to McInnes. However, Rangers want to move on John Souttar and find additions at the top end of the park before targeting another addition in defence.
Still, only two of their 11 summer signings to date have come in the final third and, as their manager has been keen to stress in recent weeks, that balance needs correcting.
Nedeljkovic joins James Penrice in beefing up options at full-back and should help as much going forward as he does when defending his own goal. Interest in Club Brugge right-back Hugo Siquet that was reported on last week never materialised in part because the Belgians were already prepared to lose another full-back in the form of Joaquin Seys. Regardless, as talks accelerated with Nedeljkovic in recent weeks, it became clear to all parties that this move was the one to prioritise.
"Yeah, it was amazing because the last five, six days we spoke a lot, so for me it was an easy decision after the first meeting with the coach. I made this decision and I only wanted to come to Rangers," the defender said.
Talks with his countryman Vanja Dragojevic in recent days also helped Nedeljkovic decide this was the right move for him after such a difficult year. Like the former Partizan Belgrade captain who scored an outstanding volley during Sunday's 5-1 win over St Mirren, Rangers believe Nedeljkovic boasts the technical ability and temperament to translate his experience of Serbian football to Ibrox.
Close friends from their days in the Serbian youth and first-team set-up, the pair can now enjoy being on the same side of a fierce derby after previously turning out for Red Star Belgrade and Partizan.
Nedeljkovic is a final-third player in a way Sterling and McCrorie are not. There is a familiar degree of risk associated with this deal. After all, he managed fewer than 300 professional minutes last season on loan at RB Leipzig from Villa.
However, the Rangers Review has been told that Leipzig had a £10 million purchase obligation if the Serbian played more than 10 matches, having spent the second half of the 2024/25 campaign at the RB Arena. After injury issues throughout the season, the fact things did not work out in the Bundesliga was circumstantial. During his first six months at the Red Bull Arena, in early 2025, he was a regular, earning a move back to Germany.
The loan move to Ibrox features a conditional obligation of £4million, based partly around a high number of appearances, which protects the club from a straight obligation to buy should a serious injury resurface
Put simply, you do not get a player of Nedeljkovic's quality without an asterisk of injury or a difficult season attached. Rangers are not shopping in the same market as RB Leipzig or Villa, who paid £8 million for the player when he was an 18-year-old establishing himself at Red Star Belgrade and had already made his debut for Serbia against Spain.
Plus, we are not talking about seasons upon seasons of issues for a player who will not celebrate his 21st birthday until December. As Youssef Chermiti's recent ACL injury shows, luck is inseparable from the early years of a football career. Plus, the obligation element of the deal should protect Rangers from any further injury issues.
Already capped 11 times by his country, the full-back is a player who has been tracked as part of the succession planning to replace Tavernier, with Danny Rohl's Red Bull links seeing the former head coach receive positive feedback on the player.
Leipzig sporting director Marcel Schäfer explained his side's move for the full-back in 2025 by saying: "Kosta is the prototype of a full-back who works the right flank with a high work rate, pace, attacking intent and a top mentality. He is strong in duels, good at winning the ball back and has an excellent understanding of the game."
Leipzig were sufficiently impressed to take him back on loan with a conditional obligation to buy, until an injury early in that loan spell complicated matters.
Indeed, Nedeljkovic has previously cited French full-back Theo Hernandez as the player he models his game on. He is a powerful straight-line runner who wants to remain in the outer regions of the park rather than join the midfield, as has become increasingly popular in recent years.
Nedeljkovic was clocked at a top speed of 36.4km/h while playing in the Serbian second tier on loan at Grafičar early in his career. For a team still crying out for pace, albeit not necessarily at the top end of the pitch, the Serbian's running power and range are among his standout strengths.
McInnes' football is different from Rohl's in many ways, despite both operating from a 4-4-2 shape. One of the key distinctions is between the current manager's preference for width and the previous head coach's intent to attack centrally. Both, however, want strong, rangy full-backs to eat up ground and progress the ball individually.
It was evident when McCrorie came on during the closing stages against Hibs and Jagiellonia that he has his limitations when trying to contribute to breaking down an opponent.
Certainly, from a profile perspective, Nedeljkovic should offer an on-ball impact more akin to Tuur Rommens and James Penrice than Sterling and McCrorie. It will be intriguing to see how McInnes accommodates two full-backs who want to travel forward with the extra midfielder utilised in Sunday's 4-3-3, which led to a far more cohesive performance than recent versions of a two-striker system.
Read more:
- What McInnes tried for the first time vs St Mirren and why 4-3-3 caused 'ironic' upturn
- Kosta Nedeljkovic reveals Rangers star who acted as his agent ahead of switch
Having trained regularly with Aston Villa across pre-season, McInnes says Nedeljkovic will be ready to go right away. Ready to make up for the lost time of last season, a new era at right-back is underway.
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