WHEN Steven Gerrard confirmed on Tuesday night that Rangers were close to completing a deal for another defender, the supporters would have been excited to see who would be coming into Ibrox next. Filip Helander is that player and he arrives in Glasgow with a good pedigree behind him after playing for Malmo, Verona and, most recently, Bologna, as well as turning out for Sweden.

He is here to play. He is an international player, he has played in Europe and he has a chance now to show what he is all about.

Having watched a bit of him over the last few days, I have been impressed with what I have seen of him. Importantly, he doesn’t look like someone who is short of a word and he is a vocal character.

At around £3.5million, Helander represents a fairly large outlay for Rangers in terms of what they have done in transfer market recently so there is a bit of pressure on him to justify that straight away.

You don’t spend that kind of money on someone that isn’t ready to come in and make an immediate impression and that is what Steven needed this summer.

The squad has plenty of players that can play a part or come off the bench but some positions needed starters brought in and that seems to be Filip. The question for Steven now will be who plays alongside Helander and that is a really good problem to have when you look at Connor Goldson and Nikola Katic and then George Edmundson trying to come on and impress as well.

The squad in general has so many options right now and the ones that are picked every week know fine well that if they don’t perform then they could be out of the team or out of the group the following week.

There are plenty of players there that can come in and do a job so there is pressure on you every week. There are very few definite starters and everyone in the squad will get a chance to show what they can do.

Helander may well come in and get a spot in the first few weeks and it will then be up to him to keep out the ones behind him that will be pushing to get back in.

If you are not defensively sound, you won’t make any kind of impact in Italy and the fact that he has played as many times in Serie A is a positive for Rangers.

He has come up against some very good strikers in his time and he fits the bill in terms of what Rangers were needing at the back because he is left-sided. That is not something that we have had recently and hopefully he can give the back four better balance.

If you are a left winger, you can go across to the right and play and you see full-backs playing on the opposite side, like Jon Flanagan did last season, for teams as well.

At centre-half, you really need to be playing on your strongest side so that when people are coming at you it is easier for you to get a tackle in with your preferred foot.

That is only natural. You don’t have to have a right-footed defender and a left-footed one at the back but I think it definitely helps and having Helander come in is as bonus.

Until he gets down to business with Rangers and settles in Glasgow, you never really know how good he is going to be. That is the same for every player that joins Rangers.

You can be a good player elsewhere, but you have to adapt to Scottish football and to Rangers with the expectation levels and the demands from the supporters.

You have to accept it, but he will be fully aware of that as he makes a really interesting move to Ibrox.