English third tier club lines up Connor Goldson swoop

Connor Goldson is reported to be a transfer target for Birmingham City who were relegated to League One in May.

After six years spent watching Celtic lift 13 of the 18 domestic honours on offer the Ibrox club are desperate to reduce costs with Goldson one of the highest earners at the club.

Reports of interest in Goldson and James Tavernier from Steven Gerrard at Al Ettifaq have predictably come to nothing with little prospect of any English side being prepared to match their wages.

Former Celtic coach Chris Davies is in his first job as manager, after working with Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou it would be a shock if he was pinning his faith in a serial loser like Goldson.

It is hard to see how Goldson’s unique style of defending would survive outside of Scottish football where the handball rule is applied equally to all clubs.

Writing in The Sun Ibrox specialist Andy Devlin reports:

BIRMINGHAM City are eyeing a transfer for Connor Goldson.

SunSport understands former Celtic coach Chris Davies has targeted the Rangers defender after taking over at St Andrew’s.

City are rebuilding following relegation to League One and Davies – who has worked under Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou – is desperate to add much needed experience.

Goldson, from nearby Wolverhampton, has played over 300 games for Gers since becoming Steven Gerrard’s sixth signing back in the summer of 2018.

The 31-year-old defender featured in every match Rangers played – 56 in total – when Gerrard led them to the title in 2021.

In April, he was axed by current boss Philippe Clement before sustaining the knee injury in training which ended his season.

Goldson has two years left to run on his current contract and is one of the highest earners at Ibrox.

But if first team football at Ibrox is no longer guaranteed, the former Brighton man could be tempted to call time on his seven year stay in Glasgow.

That seven year stay started in July 2018, ne fee is mentioned in the report with Clement desperate to reduce his wage bill.

It was well recorded that Goldson was running down his contract through the 21/22 season with a return to the English midlands predicted.

When no offers came in it was reported as a coup for Giovanni van Bronckhorst that the former Shrewsbury starlet signed a new four year contract.

With John Lundstram and Kemar Roofe no longer at the club the wage bill has significantly been reduced by Goldson, Tavernier, Rabbi Matondo, Ben Davies, Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers and Danilo still draining the coffers with only Tavernier and Dessers playing regularly.

Last week Dessers was rumoured to be moving to PAOK of Greece last week but that deal seems to have hit the buffers.