Gers come face-to-face with Premiership 'monster' ex-midfielder is desperate to see at Ibrox
03/29/2025 10:00 AM
Rangers have already signed one player from Scottish Premiership rivals Dundee ahead of next season.
Lyall Cameron signed a pre-contract at Rangers in January, with the Dundee playmaker set to join up with his new Rangers teammates come the end of the current campaign.
Nils Koppen has pledged Rangers will shop local as they look to pick up the best young homegrown players the Scottish Premiership has to offer.
Cameron is conveniently injured for Rangers' trip to Dens Park but Andy Halliday reckons it's not just the 22-year-old who should be on the Ibrox side's radar ahead of next season.
Rangers urged to sign 'athletic monster' Josh Mulligan
Josh Mulligan has been another top performer for Tony Docherty's youthful Dundee side and has impressed Motherwell rival Andy Halliday this season.
Speaking on Open Goal back in January, Halliday was reflecting on Rangers' abysmal domestic performance with the league finished before it barely got started this season.
The 33-year-old wants to see the Rangers squad bulked out with more homegrown options and reckons that alongside Lyall Cameron, out-of-contract Mulligan is a no-brainer signing for the Gers.
"It's a sad state. It's in January when you're saying this but the league is done," Halliday said. "The league has been done for a while.
"[Rangers] just need to prepare a squad, whether it's depth, quality, line up players for the summer and try to do as much business as they can.
"Pre contracts! Two players I would sign right now; Lyall Cameron and Josh Mulligan. Honestly, I would sign the two of them."
Andy Halliday has come up against Mulligan several times this season and has been impressed by the 22-year-old defensive midfielder's quality and athleticism.
Halliday rates both Cameron and Mulligan and reckons they can contribute to Rangers in the same way that Luke McCowan has impacted Celtic.
"Mulligan is an athletic monster, I am signing him. I am signing the two of them on pre-contracts," Halliday explains.
"[Koppen] mentioned homegrown talent. See your Mulligans and Lyall Camerons, I'm not saying signing them is going to win Rangers the league. But see what [Luke] McCowan is doing for Celtic, get them two boys for proper squad depth, they will play games and do well for you."
Stats prove Josh Mulligan would be clever Rangers signing
Rangers have heeded their former midfielder's advice when it comes to Cameron and will now come face-to-face with Josh Mulligan and Dundee.
The Gers are set to travel to Dens Park for a late kick off in the Scottish Premiership and interim Rangers manager Barry Ferguson will get a closer look at the out-of-contract midfielder.
A mobile defensive midfielder, Mulligan's job is to be aggressive for the Dee in the middle of the pitch, anchor the midfield and win back possession.
That's reflected in the midfielder's stats too; Mulligan wins over 70% of his tackles (31 in total, 72.1%) whilst the defender has also won 125 duels (50% win rate).
Mulligan is effective in the air – winning 34 aerial duels at a rate of 59.6% this season – and had made an impressive 117 recoveries of the ball in the Premiership this season.
There are still big improvements that can be made of course. Mulligan's pass success rate of 75.8% points to someone who has to improve is use of the ball to take a step up to Rangers.
But whilst Nicolas Raskin is Rangers' 'pit bull' in the middle of the pitch, Mulligan is a more than apt rotation option with his best years ahead of him.
At 22 the defensive midfielder still has some big evolutions to make in his game and would surely benefit from the change of environment at Ibrox.
Out of contract ahead of the summer transfer window, Mulligan has the chance to impress Rangers with Dundee at Dens Park and he's one to watch for fans too.
