One man’s misfortune can sometimes be another man’s luck.
Remember the volcanic dust cloud that grounded flights across Europe in 2010, a once in a lifetime event that saw Robert Lewandowski unable to fly to England to complete a move to Blackburn Rovers – then of the Premier League – instead choosing to make the short journey to Germany and sign for Borrusia Dortmund, the rest, as they say, is history.
Now, it might not quite be as big a deal as that, however, the injury that saw Blackburn again miss out on a young, up and coming striker, could see Rangers benefit in the long run.
Josh Maja managed to make it to England to sign on the dotted line, a season long loan deal had been agreed with Bordeaux, however, a back injury that had prevented him from returning to pre-season blocked the move – an injury he has yet to recover from.
Cruel as it may sound though, this means that his value continues to drop, on Transfermarkt it has gone from a high of £6.3million shortly after his move to France from Sunderland to £4.5m now. Last summer he signed for Fulham who had an option to buy clause of £9m but this summer a fee of £3.8m would have been enough to seal a permanent move – well within our budget.
Maja has been on our radar before and it would be a surprise if we aren’t monitoring his situation as he approaches the last 18-months of his contract with the Ligue 1 side but a move would probably depend on there being an exit from our group of strikers – Alfredo Morelos attracting the most interest historically but Cedric Itten could also leave if he impresses in Germany.
He seems to have been around for ages but at 22-years old, he remains the name at the top of Vital Rangers list should Ross Wilson need to get the chequebook out for a new striker.