Crushing Conor Coady blow for Martin and the 49GERS

A month after his DONE DEAL move to Ibrox Conor Coady is in Austria this morning training with his real team-mates while Russell Martin prepares to submit his squad to face Panathinaikos to UEFA tonight.

It seems that the billions of dollars now available to the 49GERS has been unable to convince Leicester to sell the defender or to get Coady to push the deal through.

The former England defender is in the final year of his lucrative Leicester deal with no sign of heading north to join James Tavernier and Jack Butland in their decling leadership group.

For reasons unknown Peterborough were gifted £3.5m for Manny Fernandez who appears to require the turning circle of an oil tanker with Wolves misfit Nasser Djiga.

With John Souttar, Leon King, Robin Propper and Clinton Nsiala the back up options it is easy to see why Martin needs other alternatives in defence.

The Daily Record has been at the front of the efforts to bring Coady to Ibrox but yesterday Keith Jackson was forced to admit that that plan is looking unlikely:

Record Sport revealed on Tuesday that Coady had hoped to be given the green light to travel to Glasgow to conclude a much anticipated move to Ibrox rather than lead his team mates on a ten day summer tour under new boss Marti Cifuentes.

And we can also reveal that bosses from the cash strapped King Power outfit have now also earmarked the 32-year-old’s replacement – opening talks with an experienced Premier League defender who is available to join them as a free agent at the start of this week.

It might not just be Leicester that are cash strapped….

But Coady remains under contract and the 32-year-old has not yet been given permission to seal his move to Scotland. Instead, he boarded the team charter flight from the Midlands on Wednesday afternoon and touched down in Austria at team time.

That means new Rangers boss Martin may now have to go into next week’s crucial qualification first leg against Panathinaikos without the former England defender in his Euro ranks.

Martin has until Thursday night to register his squad with UEFA ahead of the visit from the Greeks, although a loophole allows competing clubs to add two further late additions up until 24 hours ahead of kick-off next Tuesday night.

Which could see debuts for Fernandez and Djiga…

But if Coady cannot be signed up before that deadline he would also be unable to play in the second leg in Athens where Martin is likely to require all hands on deck as he attempts to guide his new club into the next knock-out stage.

Led by Souttar, in the final year of his contract looking at the efforts and expense being used to attract Coady as his replacement.

The news that discussions have already begun with Coady’s replacement, however, means that Martin’s hopes of beating the deadline may not yet be completely dashed.

It is the hope that kills them.

Former Wigan starlet Thelo Aasguaard is a major injury doubt after picking up a knock during Tuesday’s Murray Park win over Dunfermline reserves.