The most complicated, protracted drawn out saga since the Andrew Ellis take over of Rangers continues with the Ibrox men still no nearer to the signing of Nikica Jelavic from Rapid Vienna.
Rapid’s Europa League qualifier with Aston Villa presents the latest hurdle to the deal which has been plagued with problems since Rangers went public on the deal.
Along the way to inching closer to agreeing a fee with Rapid on his various trips to the Austrian capital Rangers chief Martin Bain has found completing the deal riddled with problems.
Reports of interest from Benfica, Blackburn and Everton sent the fee rising with complications also setting in over the sell-on clause due to Jelavic’s previous club Belgian aces Zulte Waregem.
Meanwhile on the Rangers website Kenny Miller enthused about the transfer despite not knowing much about the player other than reading that he was really good.
Maybe Miller’s enthusiasm is because the arrival of Jelavic will allow him to move on before his own contract expires at the end of the season.
Greedy Rapid pushed the fee upwards due to the cut that Zulte were due before details started to emerge of Jelavic being due a pay-off from Rapid from any transfer.
As the fee moved up from 3 million euros towards £4m plus Jelavic’s wage demands increased similarly above Rangers £15,000/week limit which seemed to bring the ‘deal’ to a halt with Rangers ‘walking away’ to sign James Beattie.
Oh no they didn’t, despite snapping up the former England hot-shot from Stoke City Rangers remained in the one club chase for Jelavic.
And so the pantomime continued.
With Bain back on the deal Rapid have again been moving the goalposts insisting that Jelavic plays against Aston Villa on Thursday night in the Europa League… which would rule him out of playing for Rangers in the Champions League.
Oh no it doesn’t as it emerged that Jelavic would be able to be play for Rangers if Rapid lose to Villa and miss out on the Europa League.
No doubt there will be a few more dramas to be played out before Rangers miss out on their No. 1 transfer target… watch this space.
Not so long ago it only required a phone call from Sir Sean Connery and any player in the world would be scrambling on-board Sir David Murray’s private jet for a tour of the state-of-the-art training facilities at Murray Park before signing the dotted line and being paraded as a Rangers player and targeting Champions League glory.
Follow Video Celts on Twitter and Facebook
