Michael Beale was less than subtle in January when he told reporters that Rangers wouldn’t be signing a striker, however, what he did say was that he already had his eye on one for the summer.
Speculation started almost immediately and, so far, we have seen Josh Maja, Nikola Krstovic and Petar Ratkov all linked with moves to Ibrox, however, a new name has now emerged and it is one that will certainly raise a few eyebrows.
🚨#Celtic and #Rangers scouts watched the Athens derby between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos.
They watched Panathinaikos’ Dimitris Kourbelis and Fotis Ioannidis and Olympiacos’ In-Beom Hwang #Olympiacos #Panathinaikos #CelticFC #RangersFC pic.twitter.com/QV0qRuDyY3
— Georgios Sideridis (@gsideridiss) February 27, 2023
According to Georgios Sideridis, both Rangers and Celtic have watched 23-year old Greece international Fotis Ioannidis who, in the summer, will have just a year left of his current deal. Greek media outlet Sportime has claimed that he was close to signing a new deal recently but that something has turned his head:
“Panathinaikos and Fotis Ioannidis had almost agreed on the extension of their cooperation. Now, the Greek forward – seeing it from the sidelines – has second thoughts about his contract. Which people influence him?
“Fotis Ioannidis, seeing the achievements of Pavlidis, Douvikas in the Netherlands, learning the financial status of the agreements of Foudas, Giakoumakis in MLS has second thoughts regarding the renewal or not of his contract with Panathinaikos (s.s.: “runs” until in 2024, none 120 figure annual earnings average).”
My Greek isn’t what it used to be, however, Google Translate has come in handy on this occasion, basically, Ioannidis is seeing the money that can be made elsewhere and is now thinking about moving on. If the final sentence is an indicator of the average salary at his club – around ÂŁ120,000 a year – then no wonder he might be having second thoughts. Alfredo Morelos currently picks that up in about four months.
Ioannidis might have four caps for Greece since the end of 2022, however, with just three goals this season and 12 in 82 games for Panathinaikos, Ross Wilson would have a tough sell on his hands to suggest that he is the man to replace the Colombian.