Rangers’ hopes of landing highly-rated Italian defender Nicolo Bertola look like being dashed after Inter Milan showed an interest in the Spezia man.
Ibrox technical director Nils Koppen had identified the centre-half for a potential move to Glasgow this summer, with the Ibrox club looking to take the player for nothing when his contract expires at the end of the season.
But Bertola’s form with the side currently sitting third in the second tier of Italian football has not gone unnoticed.
Reigning champions Inter are believed to have contacted the 21-year-old’s representatives and now seem intent on taking him to the San Siro.
Bologna and Torino are also admirers of the 6ft 4in Italy Under 21 international, meaning Koppen and manager Philippe Clement will have to cast their net wider to bolster their squad for next season.
As things stand, Clement will be able to count upon John Souttar, Robin Propper and Clinton Nsiala in central defence.
Italian giants have muscled in on Philippe Clement’s move for a much-needed defender
Nicolo Bertola has caught the eye of Rangers after impressing for Italian side Spezia
Bertola, right, has looked so good this season he is also attracting interest from Inter Milan
Clement brought in Rafael Fernandes on loan from Lille until the summer, although there is an option to buy the Portuguese.
Leon Balogun’s contract expires at the end of the season. While the Nigeria international has done well across two spells at Ibrox, he turns 37 this summer.
High-flying investor admits Rangers were the ones that got away
A potential investor in Rangers, businessman Scott Galloway claims it would cost between £8million and £40million to become a ‘legitimate part’ of the club.
Son of a Scottish immigrant, US-based Galloway is a professor of marketing at New York University Stern School of Business, as well as an entrepreneur, podcast host and public speaker.
Last year he revealed that he had scrapped plans to invest in Rangers when he was warned that he would become ‘the most hated person in the UK’.
Since then he *has* invested in Colombian side La Equidad as part of a Hollywood consortium which included Wrexham duo Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and Eva Longoria.
Admitting that Rangers were the one that got away, Galloway told The Prof G podcast: ‘I’ve always wanted to invest in a soccer team.
‘I love football, I recently went to a PSG game with my eldest.
Potential investor Scott Galloway admits he had enquired about putting money into Rangers
Galloway joined Rob McElhenney, Ryan Reynolds and Eva Longoria in investing in Colombian club La Equidad
‘We’ve joked about it and laughed about it, but I’d enquired about investing in Rangers in Glasgow.
‘But, quite frankly, I’m just not in that weight class.
‘Rangers, you would need to come up with an eight-figure sum of money.
‘You need to come up with $10m to $50m (£8m to £40m) to be a really legitimate part of their owner group.
‘So that’s out of my weight class, much less a Premier League team who are now going for billions.’
Last year Galloway recalled how an unnamed Scottish historian dissuaded him from getting involved at Ibrox.
He said: ‘I got together the wealthiest, most famous Scottish people in the US, about 14 of us, and said: “Lets go buy Rangers FC – because it’s a publicly-traded company”. I had it all figured out, a £10m convertible note.
‘Then a friend of mine who is a famous Scottish historian said: “You’d be the most hated person in the UK”
“He goes: “You know nothing about football, you’d be some American idiot over there” and I was, like, yeah you’re right.’
At least card-happy Nick Walsh has done one thing right for Rangers
Nick Walsh isn’t exactly the most popular man inside Ibrox right now after standing by his decision to send off Mohamed Diomande at Tannadice last Sunday.
The fact the decision was overturned on appeal doesn’t change the fact that it shouldn’t have got that far.
Having been called to his pitch-side monitor, the referee had plenty of opportunities to see that there hadn’t been a great deal in the Ivorian’s clash with Kevin Holt.
Referee Walsh’s red card for Mohamed Diomande of Rangers has since been rescinded
But the official inadvertently helped Rangers when he sent off Machida of Union Saint Gilloise
Walsh also sent off Union’s English defender Christian Burgess in the same game with Braga
Walsh’s card-happy approach has at least done Rangers one favour in the past week, though.
He was the man in the middle for Union Saint-Gilloise’s Europa League clash with Braga last week, which the Belgians won 2-1.
In a combustible finale to the contest, the Scottish official sent off two players from either side.
That means two Union defenders, Christian Burgess and Koki Machida, are suspended from the final group game.
Union have made the trip to Glasgow in top form. They are third in the Belgian Pro League with just three defeats in total.
Tied with Rangers on 11 points, they also need a win on Thursday night and must hope other results go their way if they are to stand any chance of finishing in the top eight.
Their chances of doing so have certainly not been helped by Walsh’s interventions last week.
Kamara remains prime example of the perfect pre-contract agreement
With limited resources for a club of their size, Rangers’ best chance of securing value for money in the transfer market is with pre-contract signings.
Which is why Philippe Clement is keen to strike a deal with Lyall Cameron as Dundee’s highly-rated midfielder enters the final six months of his contract.
The Ibrox club have had mixed fortunes with their work in previous January windows – let’s not mention the Aaron Ramsey loan deal – but scooping up players on the cheap when their existing deals are running out makes sound business sense.
The best example was Glen Kamara, also picked up from Dundee. Having agreed a summer transfer with the midfielder in January 2019, Rangers boss Steven Gerrard then brought the move forward by offering the Tayside club just £50,000 at the end of the month.
Midfielder Glen Kamara turned out to be a terrific acquisition for Rangers from Dundee
The Ibrox club are hoping Lyall Cameron will be equally successful if he joins from Dens Park
How Dundee allowed such a valuable asset to go for relative pennies is anyone’s guess, but pretty soon Kamara was proving to be worth an awful lot more. His team-mate, Scott Arfield, described him as ‘the steal of the century’.
Kamara joined Leeds United for £5.5m and then Rennes for even more. After six months at the French club, he is now being linked with a move to England, where Southampton and Ipswich Town are among those credited with an interest.
As Rangers chase another January acquisition from Dens Park, it’s tempting to draw a parallel, but let’s not go overboard. While Cameron is a sensible target, he probably doesn’t have the sell-on value of his predecessor and certainly won’t be acquired for peanuts.
The 22-year-old Scot would cost Rangers a decent sum in compensation, as Connor Barron did when he moved to Ibrox from Aberdeen last summer. An SPFL tribunal ordered the Ibrox club to pay £640,000 for Barron, with the potential for £250,000 more in add-ons.
Dundee will argue that Cameron, who is also being targeted by Aberdeen, should be worth something similar.
Given how much time and money they have invested in his development, they can hardly be blamed for believing so.
Goal-machine Wilkinson is putting everyone to the sword
During a title-challenging season when it is incumbent upon them to win well, win ugly and, perhaps most importantly, win when they are not at their best, Katie Wilkinson is just what Rangers women need.
The 30-year-old striker, signed from Southampton last summer, is a game-changer, a difference-maker, a scorer of all sorts of goals, even when her team are underperforming, as they were against Spartans last Sunday.
Jo Potter’s side made hard work of the first half in Edinburgh. Even after Spartans had Kate Fraser sent off just before half-time, the visitors had to remain patient and wait for their breakthrough.
When it came, there was no surprise to see it arriving courtesy of Wilkinson, whose double in the space of six minutes took her tally for the season to 31. Two minutes from time, Jane Ross sealed a 3-0 victory.
Katie Wilkinson is turning out to be a real star for Rangers after scoring some important goals
Wilkinson had demonstrated her quality in the Sky Sports Cup semi-final seven days earlier, when she scored a stunning free kick in Rangers’ 2-1 triumph over Celtic.
Against a stubborn Spartans side who defended for their lives with only 10 players, Wilkinson’s goals underlined her predatory instincts. The first was a header, the second a deflected shot. Team-mate Chelsea Cornet later described her as ‘a goal machine’.
Potter admitted that Rangers had been below par and that Wilkinson had been needed to get the job done. ‘Even when we’re not playing particularly well, she will pop up with a couple of goals,’ said the manager. ‘The moment of quality was the difference for us because we weren’t quite at it.’
The English striker’s double could turn out to be priceless in a title race that is growing tighter by the week. With leaders Glasgow City losing to Hibs, second-placed Rangers are now just two points off the pace.
Next up for Potter’s side is a Scottish Cup tie at home to Montrose on Sunday.
