Major absence of Rangers’ Jack Butland was bizarre | OneFootball

While a number of fans, Ibrox Noise included, noted significantly the absence of Rangers captain James Tavernier from the new shirt launch material (he was at the filming/shirt unveil but didn’t model the kit for the first time in 5+ years) there was another omission that we’ve heard little about:

Jack Butland.

The lack of Rangers’ #1 plugging the goalie’s new kit was notable this season, given the importance of Butland and the profile he has now got as a result of the campaign just past.

He won Rangers’ club award of player of the year, and was nominated for the Scottish Premiership’s equivalent.

His stock is high.

And yet the promotional material did not include him at all in any of the shoots?

Now, not every year will we see the goalie kit being plugged aggressively – it sells the least of all the shirts being sold for obvious reasons, and in 2022 for example Jon McLaughlin was named first choice keeper for heaven’s sake…

But this summer was Butland’s first as a Rangers player, and we are very surprised the club did not include him in the material plugging the new kit launch given his profile currently as arguably the club’s biggest asset.

Instead the main promotion included two major asset players in Dujon Sterling and Ridvan Yilmaz, as well as promoted youth product Ross McCausland who had something of an indifferent debut season, alongside recovering striker Danilo albeit he wasn’t in the main ‘main’ photos.

There were also Nicola Docherty, Libby Bance, and Chelsea Cornet representing the women.

But no Butland, the biggest name at Rangers at the moment in terms of stock, demand, and market value, not to mention profile.

Rangers could have used his face to sell the shirt even more strongly in the fertile market of England, but there was no sign of him at all.

A precursor to an exit?

Who knows.