Rangers fans, to say the least, are beyond frustrated and furious with Derek McInnes over the repeated selection of Emmanuel Fernandez. The entire subplot and general hype over this boy has taken on something of a cult legend in itself.

As we all know, Ibrox Noise was deeply against this signing. We completely opposed signing a £300,000 Peterborough League One defender who was clearly nowhere near up to it and bringing him to Govan. Rangers fans en masse weren’t happy with him either.

But randomly, three or four headed set piece goals seemed to turn him into some sort of hero. Suddenly, all the clickbait sites and Peterborough supremo Barry Fry as well pegged him as a £40M defender. This was absolute nonsense, but it created a narrative around him that Ibrox Noise could not understand.

Barry Fry and the Rangers Emmanuel Fernandez Hype

Barry Fry, we could understand his angle. We understood that there’s a sell on clause with Fernandez and he wants to get a big chunk of change for his old player. But the fact is he saw Rangers coming and sold the boy for ten times his actual face value. It was inexplicable and only Rangers would do it. No wonder Rangers fans are furious about it.

To this day, we are still being deeply damaged by Emmanuel Fernandez’s appalling defending. Previously, we had justified and explained his continued selection because he was tall, a lefty and good in the air. These positive attributes themselves are starting to come into question because his negative ones are deeply outweighing them.

Lazy, poor concentration, error strewn, bad reading of the game, lacking in quality tackles and just generally defending as if he’s blind.

The fact that South Africa’s Olwethu Makhanya is having to pick up his slack all the time is a deep embarrassment for Rangers. We cannot fathom why Ben Godfrey, no Laurent Blanc himself, hasn’t managed to get a game. It is stunning.

Rangers fans Wonder Why Derek McInnes Keeps Selecting Fernandez?

Does Fernandez’s contract contain a clause that guarantees his place in the team? Mainly because he has played pretty much every match since he joined Rangers. He is another major reason why Rangers’ rearguard has been so flimsy in recent times.

Yes, it’s been a little better this season overall. But that can be put down hugely to Dujon Sterling and Olwethu Makhanya, not to mention James Penrice.

Fernandez himself is absolutely diabolical. Every passing match that his name remains on the team sheet, Rangers fans get more and more frustrated.

Furious Rangers Fans Have Seen This Problem Before

Rangers fans have always had at least one or two players at any given time who frustrated them by appearing in the starting team match after match. That player would stick. And conspiracy theories and all kinds of wild reasons would surface as to why that player kept on getting his place.

We can even go back 13 years to Lee McCulloch in defence and the inexplicable nature of him being in that position repeatedly, time after time. It even ended up on Sky Sports News, whereby a conspiracy theory that he had a clause in his contract requiring him to play was dismissed.

But there have been many more since. James Tavernier himself was another who kept on playing no matter how terribly he was doing. And there have been many more over the years.

Fernandez is just the latest.

Ben Godfrey Must Replace Emmanuel Fernandez

We can’t fathom why this boy continues to play and it’s abundantly clear that we need Ben Godfrey to take that lad’s place immediately.

But for whatever reason, Fernandez appears to be here to stay. No matter how badly he plays, he stays in defence. Derek McInnes is too stubborn to drop him.

But then so was Danny Röhl and so was Russell Martin. It is not just McInnes who seems too stubborn to lift this boy out of the defence.

So for whatever the reason is, alas, we appear to be stuck with the boy.