AS a club that needs to start showing it understands how to work the market to its benefit, Rangers’ approach to attracting interest in — and getting some credible dough back on — Todd Cantwell and Ianis Hagi really is most peculiar.
We know both players have no long-term future at Ibrox. Cantwell, a legend in his own lunchtime, is just a pain, really, leaving much more of an impression on social media with his ‘shushburgers’ and to-camera pieces on beastly old Chris Sutton than he ever has on the park.
Manager Philippe Clement has enough to be causing him sleepless nights without another season of all that malarkey.
As far as Hagi goes, he just doesn’t fit in. For whatever reason. And, understandably, believes it would be better to start afresh.
Midfielder Todd Cantwell has asked to leave Rangers this summer
Romanian midfielder Ianis Hagi is out of favour at Rangers and is likely to be sold this summer
It’s not quite as simple as all that, though. These guys are sellable assets, Rangers need to bring in funds to sign new players and the state of the squad at the moment makes it clear they need a fair number of those.
Clement doesn’t regard either man as a longer-term prospect and that’s fine, but real questions have to be asked about the wisdom of banishing them to the forgotten land of the B-team set-up. On a couple of fronts.
First and foremost, what does publicly relegating these guys to the stiffs add to your negotiating position? What does it do to the price you are able to achieve?
Cantwell being frozen-out after submitting a couple of transfer requests — so much for all that badge-kissing, eh? — just adds to the suspicion that he really is an irritant who’d give a Nurofen a sore head. A silly, almost childish, character who doesn’t seem able to wind it in. If you’re a manager looking for additions, is that really someone you want to take a gamble on?
In regard to Hagi, the situation is even stranger. Yes, he spent last term on loan to Alaves and didn’t exactly set the heather on fire. However, he has just come off a Euro 2024 tournament in which he started two of Romania’s four games and was a used substitute in the others. He’s also still only 25 years of age.
If it’s in your mind that you want to cash in on him — and that’s obvious, considering he only has a year left on his contract — his substantial involvement in those finals in Germany is surely something you would seek to use as a platform, isn’t it?
Yet, Hagi was turning out for the B-team against Derby County yesterday morning, scoring a hat-trick in a 5-3 win, with Clement fielding questions on Friday over rumours that Rangers might actually let him walk for nothing.
It’s crazy. Clement is adamant he only wants people committed to his project in the first-team squad. There’s talk of interest from Fiorentina and others and the prospect of a move being imminent, but wouldn’t there have been some benefit in bringing Hagi back into the fold until that actually happens?
And that’s not just to try and hike up the price you might be able to demand. Maybe it’s too late for that. The second part of this argument is that, given the predicament Rangers are in, isn’t there a possibility that Hagi and even Cantwell might still be able to make some kind of contribution during a hectic spell of high-stakes games?
Rangers boss Philippe Clement needs funds to rebuild his squad
Ianis Hagi impressed with Romania at the Euros, playing four games
From the season-opener at Tynecastle to the first Old Firm game of the campaign on September 1, Rangers will play nine games in 29 days. Clement admits players cannot handle that. That clever rotation will be key.
Wouldn’t having an international player in Hagi and a bloke in Cantwell, whom the manager did claim he wanted to stay at the club, remember, available for selection be an idea? Even if it’s just to plug gaps, take the heat off others or give options from the bench.
With Hagi, there have never been issues with his overall attitude. He comports himself well. Even though he sees his future elsewhere, his background gives the impression he would buckle down until his future was settled.
He’s not the quickest. He maybe lacks a certain physicality. But are we really saying he couldn’t offer something different to Scott Wright or Ross McCausland or even Tom Lawrence in the forward positions?
With every respect, none of them played four games in the Euros during the summer. Not even Vaclav Cerny, a summer arrival from Wolfsburg, managed close to that with the Czech Republic set-up.
In an ideal world, Clement would possess a strong base on which to take hardline stances and shut out those he doesn’t feel have a place going forward. The Belgian is in anything but an ideal world, though. His club need money. He is working with a squad nowhere near ready for the season ahead. Rangers are a mess.
And many of those impressed with Clement’s clear vision in the early days of his reign after walking into the rubble left by Michael Beale are now beginning to wince almost every time he speaks.
During the week, ahead of the first leg of the Champions League third round qualifier with Dynamo Kyiv, the former Club Brugge head coach was talking about how falling into the Europa League this season would not be a disgrace.
This is not the time for that kind of chat. Kyiv should be finished off at Hampden in a replay worth £4.5million alone. After that, it’s FC Twente or Red Bull Salzburg in the play-offs.
The odds are still heavily against Rangers making it to the new league phase of UEFA’s premier club competition, but that’s what the focus has to be on. Not whether playing in the Europa League might be quite nice, all things considered. In case anyone hasn’t noticed, Celtic have £70m in the bank. They’re telling the Stock Exchange that earnings will be ‘significantly higher than previous expectations’. There’s £25m in the post for Matt O’Riley. And they’re about to bank another £40m from the Champions League.
If Rangers don’t get there and secure that kind of windfall, their arch-rivals are about to sail over the horizon to 10-In-A-Row and beyond.
You see, for all the mistakes they’ve made themselves, Celtic are ahead of Rangers on lots of fronts. One of which is cashing in on individuals their manager doesn’t want.
Celtic have sold out of favour striker Oh Hyeon-gyu to Belgian side Genk
Haksabanovic failed to make an impression at Celtic and has been sold to Malmo
Look at this summer. Oh Hyeon-gyu offered little, but reports suggest the Parkhead side picked up £4m from Genk for him. They got their money back on Sead Haksabanovic from Malmo. Now, there’s talk of Stoke City paying £2m-plus for Bosun Lawal.
Mention that name to most folk on the street and they’d guess he’s the senior deckhand on a foreign yacht.
Hagi, on the other hand, had a worldwide audience watching him a matter of weeks ago and Clement is being asked about him leaving for free. When Rangers chairman John Bennett references the ‘mythical’ player-trading model — the same one he was talking about two years ago as a pillar of rebuilding the place — everyone thinks of Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent disappearing for zilch when there was once £30m on the table.
Yet, recouping good fees for those who didn’t quite make the grade is an area Rangers have to make big improvements on too. They did get their money back for Sam Lammers from FC Twente, but the way they are handling Cantwell and Hagi raises concerns that will remain the exception rather than the rule.
Aberdeen talisman Bojan Miovski is set to leave Aberdeen for Girona
Prolific Miovski would have fitted the bill for Celtic
WELL, it looks like the end is nigh for Aberdeen and Bojan Miovski. The North Macedonian has been an excellent signing for the Reds and deserves the payday his goals have earned him.
Maybe he does fancy a crack at a different league with a little more glamour. Maybe Girona, a comfortable third in Spain’s Primera Liga last term and boasting heightened resources as part of the City Football Group, are the right answer.
It is easy to see why they — and the lifestyle they might offer — would appeal. Yet, with the prospective fee for Miovski being reported as something just north of £5million, one question remains.
Why haven’t Celtic, a team with only one striker in Kyogo Furuhashi and cash burning a hole in every pocket they’ve got, at least had a go at keeping him in the Scottish Premiership – where it is clear he would carry on scoring an absolute barrowload and more?
New manager David Gray looks ill at ease at Hibs after a shaky start to his reign
Rookie boss Gray could be swallowed up by Hibs’ woe
HIBS boss David Gray already has the look of a geezer caught in the crossfire. The answers are clipped, there isn’t an awful lot of personality on show. He doesn’t come across as terribly comfortable.
Maybe it’s understandable. Despite Gray’s claims that everyone is still the best of pals and the club are ‘constantly talking’ to Bill Foley’s Black Knight group, this has the feel of yet another turbulent campaign in the making in Leith. Foley, who paid £6million for a 25 per cent stake, famously insisted a few weeks back that the ruling Gordon family aren’t listening to him and nothing in the American’s background suggests he is going to let it stay that way for long.
On the field, it’s not going very well either. A 3-0 season-opening loss to St Mirren last weekend is likely to be following by a gubbing at home to Celtic today and a League Cup exit at Parkhead next weekend.
Gray, no matter how many spells he’s had as caretaker, is a rookie manager. This is not a good situation for him to be in with such inexperience and, even at this early juncture, you fear it might swallow him whole.
Should it go belly-up, though, Ian Gordon and CEO Ben Kensell cannot hide behind him in the shadows. Gray is Kensell’s fifth manager in three years at the helm. If he ends up being the latest in a long line of touchline failures, what would that say about those in charge at Easter Road? It’d confirm their time is up as well. That’s what.