Patience, they say, is a virtue. It’s certainly a trait Rangers will need in their pursuit of one of their ongoing transfer targets.
When those links were addressed for the first time earlier this week, the Ibrox-linked midfielder’s current club president insisted that there was no pressure to cash in over the summer months.
Unlike in Europe, where the Scottish Premiership for instance runs from August to May, things work a little differently in South America. Take the Uruguayan Primera Division, for instance; beginning in February and ending three weeks before Christmas day.
“Penarol does not need to sell,” president Nacho Ruglio says of the reported Rangers target Damian Garcia.
“We doesn’t need money (to pay) for next month’s salaries . We could sell Damian Garcia now, but he would only leave from December.”
Rangers want Penarol midfielder Damian Garcia
There is little stopping Rangers from signing Garcia on a pre-contract arrangement, his Penarol deal expiring at the end of the calendar year. But, with Garcia hoping to sign off as a champion and go one better after finishing as a runner-up last season, it appears neither he nor his Penarol employers are in a rush to say their goodbyes.
Penarol, powered by the heartbreak of 2023, have won 13 and drawn two of their first 15 matches this term.
It was Garcia, meanwhile, who scored the late winner against CA Fenix last time out. The 20-year-old defensive midfielder could hardly have picked a better time to open his account in senior football.
“Trust, we are all together for the cup. We are going to (fight for) everything,” Garcia says, issuing an impassioned rallying call in quotes reported by Futbol Montevideo. “(Our season has been) a 10 out of 10. We finished undefeated. But we still have to continue.
“Let them trust, we will all continue together for the cup and we will leave everything (else) behind.
“(Opening my account with a late winner) is something beautiful. The truth, is I’ve been talking and dreaming about it for several days, and the fact that it has happened excites me a lot.”
Glasgow giants pursuing South American signings
There are similarities between Rangers’ pursuit of Garcia and their interest in Godoy Cruz defender Thomas Galdames. The latter, like the former, is due to become a free agent in December. And his Argentine-based employers would obviously rather retain his services until the winter rather than lose him mid-season.
“I don’t know anything about my transfer yet,” Galdames said last week, via Vavel and the Daily Record.
“If I do get a transfer, it needs to be something that will be good for my career,” he adds. “That’s what I have been working for since the day I became a footballer. I want to play for my country and then go to the Copa America.
“All I can say is that Godoy Cruz have treated me very well since the day I arrived here. The people at the club have made me feel as if I was one of their own. And that has honestly been very important to me to be able to perform, to be comfortable and happy in the club.
“Until something happens, I remain a Godoy Cruz player.”
