Player snubbed Rangers transfer before agreeing six-figure switch elsewhere
Ukraine left-back Bogdan Mykhaylichenko has revealed he snubbed the chance to join Rangers ahead of signing for Anderlecht last month.
Anderlecht paid £500,000 to sign Mykhaylichenko, 23, from Zorya Luhansk but it wasn’t a straightforward move for the ex-Dynamo Kiev man.
Speaking about his transfer to Belgium in August, Mykhaylichenko has now confirmed that Rangers and a couple of other clubs made a move to sign him.
“There was quite a lot of interest in me this summer,” said Mykhaylichenko, as quoted by the Daily Record.
“Rangers made clear they were interested in me so that was an option and so were Werder Bremen, but Anderlecht were the most persistent.
“Dynamo Kiev also wanted me to return to them, but I think Anderlecht was the best option for me.”
Steven Gerrard did need to sign a new left-back before the season started but managed to snap up former Leicester player Calvin Bassey on a free transfer to provide back-up to Borna Barisic.
Mykhaylichenko might have been a solid addition to the Light Blues’ defence but we will never know now.
However, the Ukraine ace has started life well in Belgium by scoring on his debut for the Brussell giants while also helping them stay unbeaten in his first six league appearances.
Bassey, 20, made his full debut for Rangers at the weekend in their 5-1 win away at Motherwell and managed to impress while stepping in for Barisic.
Here is a selection of some tweets by Gers fans as they reacted to Bassey’s display at Fir Park:
If we get more displays like that from Bassey then we won’t ever really concern ourselves with ‘what could have been’ with Mykhaylichenko.
In other Rangers news, Michael Stewart has tipped this Gers outcast to get a bigger role in the first-team.