With John Souttar the only new face reporting to Murray Park tomorrow for pre-season training the Daily Record is trying desperately to find ways of adding to Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s squad.
The pay off to Sports Direct earlier this year is likely to have wiped out much of the ‘profit’ from last season while five significant first team players are in the final year of their contracts.
Sorting out the futures of Ryan Kent, Alfredo Morelos, Joe Aribo, Ryan Jack and Filip Helander is critical to squad planning and finances but there is no sign that Ross Wilson is prepared to make those big decisions.
Europa League group stage football is assured but the serious money of the Champions League is two qualifiers away although that route might involve overcoming teams from Holland or France.
Transfer movement seems to be paralysed but at the Daily Record they are trying to put together a transfer jigsaw to bring in a 28-year-old journeyman, whose career peeked with Malmo last August to end Steven Gerrard’s Champions League hopes- and accelerate his departure to Ibrox .
The Dutchman (van Bronckhorst) does want reinforcements in the striking department however, as Alfredo Morelos enters the final year of his Ibrox deal. Rangers navigated to the Europa League Final but missed the Colombian’s cutting edge in the final weeks of the season.
The Scottish Cup winners remain on the trail of Antonio Colak. The 28-year-old Croatian struck twice whilst on loan at Malmo, as the Swedes dumped Rangers out of last season’s Champions League qualifier. But he looks set to leave parent club PAOK after the Greek’s identified Senegalese hitman Keita Balde Diao as a transfer target.
He’s expected to leave Serie A outfit Cagliari this summer, but the Greeks face competition from divisional rivals Sampdoria and a number of Turkish clubs.
If a deal can be done to land Diao, then that could pave the way for Colak to head to Govan. PAOK are thought to want around £2million for the 28-year-old.
Colak has had a nomadic career across a variety of German clubs and is contracted to PAOK for two more seasons.
