One of the club’s seemingly keen to sign a Rangers player this summer should not be short of money to spend.
After sharing the Golden Boot in 2023/24 – 29 goals in the league and 33 across all competitions – reports indicate that the star striker is likely to depart for a fee in the region of £15 million.
HITC, meanwhile, understands that there are Premier League clubs keeping tabs too. West Ham United, Fulham and Crystal Palace are among those running the rule over the silky and increasingly-prolific Vangelis Pavlidis.
So with one of the most respected reporters in Dutch football claiming that AZ Alkmaar have identified Rangers misfit Sam Lammers as Pavlidis’ successor, you could be forgiven for assuming the Glasgow giants may be in line for a sizeable windfall.
Well, perhaps not.
Rangers’ Sam Lammers shining in Eredivisie loan spell
Hans Kraay Jr, speaking to ESPN, believes that AZ have no intention of spending £1 million a year in wages on Lammers, despite Pavlidis likely departure boosting the coffers substantially. The good news, however, is that interest is rising after Lammers’ superb loan spell at FC Utrecht.
As such, Rangers should not be short of suitors for a player who seems to have no future under Philippe Clement.
“(Lammers) is a point of contact, good finisher, and 10 goals already. Unfortunately, he is not going to stay (with Utrecht),” Kraay says, the former PSV Eindhoven ace enjoying his best run of form since 2017/18 when he was at Heerenveen.
“He earns one and a half million euros (a year) at Rangers. The Scots have paid a large part of his salary in these six months.
“But, in principle, they will not do that anymore in the new season. And Utrecht will of course not pay one and a half million.
“I know that he is high on the list at AZ as a successor to Pavlidis. But AZ is also not going to pay that one and a half million.”
Lammers’ salary equates to £20,000-a-week. That is simply a wage far in excess of what Eredivisie clubs outside of the ‘big three’ – PSV, Ajax and Feyenoord – are capable of offering.
Rangers paid £3 million to bring in Lammers from Atalanta last summer. But, like many of Mick Beale’s signings, the elegant Dutchman struggled to live up to his price-tag, only rediscovering the dazzling form of his Heerenveen heroics after returning to his homeland.
£20k-a-week wages are a problem
“I am under contract with them,” Lammers told De Telegraaf this week when asked about his future at Rangers. “And I will be the first to talk to them. I haven’t really had any contact with Rangers in the last six months. We will have conversations after this season.
“I don’t want to worry about that right now. The only thing I can say about it is that FC Utrecht has indicated that it wants to continue with me longer.
“I don’t know what happens next.”
Utrecht coach Ron Jans insists the club will look to do ‘everything we can‘ to keep Lammers for longer. That, however, is far easier said than done due to the finances involved in the deal.
“That will all only happen after these matches, because I don’t want to do anything that could cause me to lose focus.
“The most important games of the season are coming and I hope to be able to score goals in them too.”
