Rangers search for a striker appears to be nearing a conclusion with the news that PAOK Salonika have found a replacement for Antonio Colak, with a fee and personal terms already agreed, the hard work is already done.
There has though, been another rumour. This time, it’s a familiar face in the shape of Ellis Simms, the 21-year old Everton forward who was on loan at Hearts last season.
Writing on their Patreon site, The 4th Official broke the news but was quick to issue an update when Rangers fans on social media voiced their displeasure:
“Ellis Simms is in a lot of demand. Hearts are currently pulling out all the stops to bring him to Edinburgh. Also, I have been informed by a reliable source that Rangers are considering Simms as an option.
“However, my understanding is that Rangers are currently focussing on other targets and is not a top priority.”
Successful Rangers teams of the past always had a group of good strikers rather than a hierarchical system starting with a first choice and working backwards, the link to Simms might just be that, consideration of more depth to the forward line.
Fashion Sakala started our first pre-season game against Partick Thistle but he’s always done his best work from a wider position and it would be a surprise for Giovanni van Bronckhorst to change tact now and to consider the Zambian international as a central option.
Simms had a few decent highlights at Hearts but I’m not sure he was consistently good enough or caused our own defenders enough problems to think that he could start ahead of any of the players we already have, Colak or even Joe Aribo.
It sounds a lot from the report that Simms’s name is on a list of players being watched but, as for being a genuine target, on this occasion I don’t think the support would be too bothered if we missed out.