Another day, another Joey Veerman update.
This time the cause for speculation is that there is no speculation, if that makes sense?
Glasgow Live has reported that Heerenveen don’t believe that any bids are imminent and that previous suitors Feyenoord and Hellas Verona have all but given up any hopes of landing the Dutch youth cap, causing former PSV Eindhoven and Gers defender Michael Ball to put the Ibrox side firmly in the driving seat in the race for his signature, as told to Football FanCast:
“Yeah, there’s been a lot of noise about Joey and I think maybe one or two other clubs are sort of sneaking around, but Rangers seem to be the favourites.”
As we’ve said before on Vital Rangers – it’s all about the transfer fee.
The £8.5million figure in itself isn’t astronomical for a player of Veerman’s calibre but we have to at least make the Europa League group stages for us to even entertain negotiations at that sort of level and that’s without any players leaving.
It would be a surprise if we aren’t still in the market for a player like the Heerenveen midfielder, capable of adding goals and assists from a deeper position, that he has two goals already this season won’t have gone unnoticed by those keeping an eye on his performances.
We’ve never really had a proper number eight since Gerrard arrived, we have converted players like Ryan Jack and Joe Aribo but neither of them are totally convincing in the box-to-box role and we are yet to see the best of John Lundstram and what he will bring to the side.
Any move for Veerman could be down to the closing days of the transfer market once Ross Wilson and Gerrard have a better idea of who they have left, what budget there is to work with and more importantly, what competitions they will be competing in.