While reports indicate that Rangers’ first signing of the summer transfer window is hurtling towards completion with the Scottish Cup final still to come, how far behind will arrival number two be?
Rangers are allegedly closing in on Jose Cordoba, Levski Sofia’s highly-rated 22-year-old centre-half.
Blitz, the Bulgarian publication, report that the deal is now in the final stages. Philippe Clement’s Scottish Premiership runners-up will reportedly part with £3.2 million to beat clubs based in Turkey, Belgium and France to a man who was recently crowned Bulgaria’s Defender of the Year for 2023/24.
But if Cordoba adds further depth to a backline hit by injuries to Ben Davies, Connor Goldson and Leon Balogun this season, then left-back is arguably the area Rangers need reinforcements the most.
Rangers need to replace Borna Barisic
Borna Barisic appears certain to have played his final league game in Rangers blue, on his way to Trabzonspor with his contract expiring. Despite the best efforts of the versatile Dujon Sterling and Ridvan Yilmaz’s impressive rise to prominence, Barisic needs replacing.
Doing so, however, has proven to be easier said than done so far. The Gers ran into obstacles in pursuit of various left-back targets in January – APOEL Nicosia’s Jefte Vital the most memorable but far from the only one – and another of the players under consideration by the Ibrox outfit appears to have his next move tied up now too.
Gijs Smal, per Rotterdam-based publication 1908, will join Feyenoord when he too becomes a free-agent. And while the departing FC Twente ace did not name Feyenoord directly when discussing his eventual destination, he all but confirmed that the reports saying he is heading to De Kuip are on the money.
“I don’t know the specific date when everything will be released. But people are not crazy. The name of my new club will not be a surprise,” Smal says, comments that are difficult to read without imagining an Anne Robinson-style wink at the end.
Gijs Smal set for Feyenoord move
Smal topped the Eredivisie’s assist charts in 2022/23, possessing the same pinpoint delivery that had made Barisic such a favouring during six years in Glasgow.
Trabzonspor, meanwhile, have indicated that a deal to bring in Barisic and his Rangers team-mate John Lundstram are close to being announced.
Ertogrul Dogan, the Super Lig club’s president, said last week that Trabzonspor have ‘completed’ the signing of four new players ahead of next season already, two of those expected to be Barisic and Lundstram.
There is a very real danger, meanwhile, that the own goal and the red card Lundstram copped during that disastrous Old Firm derby defeat to champions Celtic will be his last meaningful acts in a Rangers shirt, only the upcoming cup final offering some hope for redemption.
“Rangers were desperately poor, really, really poor the other day in a game which was very important for them,” Martin O’Neill, a three-time Premiership winner with Celtic in the early 2000s, tells talkSPORT (17 May, 10am).
“Celtic could have been out of sight by half time. (Then) Lundstram gets himself sent off. Absolutely ridiculous.”
