Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst has had a week to take in his surroundings and assess his current first-team squad at Ibrox.

He has won his first two competitive matches in charge, beating Sparta Prague 2-0 in the Europa League and Livingston 3-1 in the Premiership.

One player who he hasn't had the chance to watch in training is centre-back Filip Helander, who is currently out with a knee injury and has missed 17 matches to date this season.

Transfer blinder

His absence has been a blow for the club, as he has been an excellent addition since arriving in 2019. The Gers pulled off a dream swoop when they brought him to the club from Bologna ahead of the 2019/20 season, however. At the time of the move, Transfermarkt valued him at just £1.80m.

He only played 18 times in his first year at the club, but he was able to prove his worth in the 2020/21 campaign as he played a crucial role in the Premiership title success. The defender played 31 times in all competitions and was a brick wall at times for the Glasgow giants.

Helander averaged a fine SofaScore rating of 7.10 in the league last term. He won an impressive 68% of his duels on the pitch and helped the club to keep 13 clean sheets in his matches. This shows that he was a consistently excellent performer at the back.

Former Ibrox boss Steven Gerrard previously hailed lauded the gem as a leader for the club, highlighting his impact as a person as well as a player. The 41-year-old said: "I think he has shown great leadership. He had a little bit of an ankle issue before the international break and never played for Sweden.

"I decided to go with Katic at Hearts for the real physicality of Ikpeazu and then use Fil’s experience and leadership away to Porto, which I knew was going to be more of a technical game. One that needed experience."

Further commenting earlier this year, the Liverpudlian hailed his positioning as "outstanding."

At the time of writing (30/11/21), Transfermarkt values him at £3.15m. This means that his estimations have soared 75% since his initial move to Scotland, proving that he has been an astute signing at Ibrox.

He has added value on and off the pitch, as shown by the evidence above, and he still has time to make further contributions to the cause at the age of 28. Van Bronckhorst will surely be eagerly awaiting his return from injury to utilise him in the second half of the campaign, with his recovery expected to be complete in December.

AND in other news, "Rangers are planning": Journo drops exciting Ibrox update which fans will surely love...