Why former Rangers star was the 'right' signing for EFL club despite relegation as exit confirmed

Ex-Rangers defender Nikola Katic has bid an emotional farewell to Plymouth Argyle after their relegation to EFL League One was confirmed.

The Bosnian international, who joined the Pilgrims on loan from Swiss Super League outfit FC Zurich in January, was unable to prevent the Devon-based club from dropping out of the Championship on the final day of the season.

He made 16 starts for the Home Park club and developed into a key figure, playing a starring role in their shock FA Cup win over Liverpool earlier this season.

The centre-back was previously linked with a return to Ibrox in the winter window amid a defensive injury crisis before signing for Argyle instead.

In an emotional message to supporters on social media as he reflected on his short spell, Katic declared he is confident Plymouth will bounce back from a disappointing league campaign.

The 28-year-old wrote on Instagram: “Gave it all every time I put shirt on to help you achieve your goal and stay where you belong. Makes me sad we couldn’t do it, but I’m sure you will bounce back. Even (though) it was a short period you made me feel like home. Support was brilliant and I couldn’t thank you enough for that. Once a Janner, always a Janner.”

Katic is under contract at FC Zurich until next summer and was asked in a recent interview whether he would consider turning his Argyle loan move into a permanent transfer. He replied: “We just need to stay up and then it will be easy for everybody. As I said, I really love it here and it’s a hell of a job in front of us to work and to achieve that.

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“But that’s the only main goal now, I don’t really care about anything else, about the future. I felt the energy from the manager, from the team, they want to stay (in the Championship) and I think they belong there so I need to give 100 percent of me every day to help them.”

Plymouth boss Miron Muslic had praised the defender’s efforts to make himself available for selection during the Championship run-in after struggling with a hamstring problem for a number of weeks.

Speaking to BBC Radio Devon last month, Muslic said: “It’s never easy, especially when the season is about to end and the loan players know exactly ‘I will return back to my home club and I will return back to the roots’, so they can lose a little bit of spirit. But that’s exactly the opposite because Nikola, that’s an international football player, he’s a national player for Bosnia.

“He can also now use the next two-and-a-half to three weeks to completely recover, to completely heal, but he pushed us almost for the game against Middlesbrough. That’s why all the data is perfect, all the analysis is perfect, that’s why you need to do a character check before you sign players. I knew in January this is the right player for us.”

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