Finally, Rangers transfer window has kicked in to life, Antonio Colak is a Rangers player and we are about to make some serious money on a player in the last year of his contract.
Joe Aribo has been worth every penny of the £300,000 that it cost to bring him up to Scottish football from Charlton Athletic and between goals in the Europa League and his domestic performances, he has made us significantly more than whatever the final fee is from Southampton.
Colak is pretty much a cost neutral signing after Cedric Itten left for Young Boys so the transfer kitty that Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Ross Wilson had to play with at the beginning of the summer should still be in tact with respected Rangers correspondents reiterating that we may have started slowly, but that we will still be busy over the next few weeks.
Jordan Campbell of The Athletic repeated his claim that there is money available for a key addition to the starting XI and that is before we had to contend with replacing Aribo.
Reported this last month on what to expect from Rangers this window.
There is a budget for a significant fee for a key player + fund other signings from Bosman/cross-border markets etc.
Extra spending was always going to be from sales like Aribo.https://t.co/nQX3WfMr2B
— Jordan Campbell (@JordanC1107) July 5, 2022
Then there is Chris Jack, who, writing in The Glasgow Times said off the back of the Nigerian international’s move to the Saints:
“Now he is poised to earn a dream switch to the Premier League as Southampton aim to fend off competition to land one of Van Bronckhorst’s prized assets sooner rather than later.
“The Dutchman has only added John Souttar to his squad so far this summer but a deal to sign striker Antonio Colak from PAOK is nearing completion and the sale of Aribo will release further funds as Rangers bid to strengthen ahead of the new Premiership campaign and their crack at the Champions League this term.”
Rangers fans have never been a patient bunch at the best of times and after a season where we made a significant amount of money, it has been a surprise, to some, that the chequebook hasn’t been brought out yet, however, patience is a virtue and we could well be pleasantly surprised by the time the window shuts – we’ll just have to wait and see.