Olwethu Makhanya will earn big money move after stellar Rangers start, insists Kevin Kyle

Olwethu Makhanya will earn a big money move after an “outstanding” start to his Ibrox career, claims former Rangers striker Kevin Kyle.

The South African defender joined from MLS side Philadelphia Union on a four-year deal at the end of July and, after an injury to Ben Godfrey, he swiftly forced his way into Derek McInnes’ starting lineup.

Makhanya has started the last ten games alongside Emmanuel Fernandez and been one of their most impressive performers as Rangers have won seven of their last eight games in all competitions.

Former Gers forward Kyle has seen enough so far to believe the 22-year-old defender, who was in the South Africa squad for the recent World Cup, could help his old club accelerate their player-trading model.

“Makhanya’s come in, and he’s been outstanding,” he told Go Radio. “He could potentially be the kind of next…the kind of signings that Celtic have made and moved on for bigger money. He could be that version for Rangers.

“He’s come into the club and basically been thrown into the deep end straight away. I’m not convinced that he was brought in to be a guaranteed starter straight away.

“Ben Godfrey was obviously the one, along with Fernandez. What you’ll probably find, I think, over time, it might be Makhanya and Godfrey together.

“Makhanya’s got all the attributes, he can head the ball, he can pass the ball, he’s aggressive in the tackle, he’s quite quick.

“So for me, over the next lot of weeks, you’ll probably hear people talk more about Makhanya than Fernandez, which might then in turn help Fernandez in a roundabout way because the focus then isn’t on him, and he can maybe relax a little bit.”

Rangers will be bidding to make it six wins in a row when they visit Celtic on Sunday, a week after defeating their city rivals 3-0 at Ibrox in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final.

Kyle believes Gers’ derby display last weekend was a sign that things are now firmly moving in the right direction under McInnes after a difficult start to his reign.

“He has managed to get the players to buy into what he’s wanting from them,” said Kyle.

“If you go back to the beginning of the season, you look at the little things like (captain) Lawrence Shankland coming on as a substitute and somebody not giving him the armband and people are saying they’re not all on board with each other.

“I think Sunday’s performance shows that all those players are on board with what Derek McInnes is trying to sell them.

“I feel like Sunday was probably the first time this Rangers group showed they’ve all bought into the tactics and the style of play that Derek wanted to see from them because to get that performance and come out with the result, they had to do that.”