Rangers player exit could be on the cards for January after major financial update – Sky Sports journalist
Sky Sports journalist Andrew Dickson suggests Rangers may have no choice but to sell a player in the January transfer window with major financial losses at Ibrox revealed on Friday.
As relayed by BT Sport, the Gers suffered a £23.5million operating loss last season and the club requires £7.5milloin to be raised “by the end of the season to meet liabilities”.
Dickson, writing via his personal Twitter account on Friday, suggested that selling a player in the upcoming January transfer window would balance the books at Ibrox.
“Easiest way to get the £7.5m needed by the end of the season would obviously be a player sale in January,” the Sky Sports journalist said.
“I’d hope though that the projection of just £0.4m of borrowing needed next season means they don’t sell too cheaply at the first offer that comes in.
“Play tougher than that.”
Who goes?
The first player that comes to mind is likely to be Alfredo Morelos.
The 25-year-old’s form at Ibrox isn’t what it was prior to last season and he also enters the final year of his contract at the end of this campaign.
January could be the best time to sell Morelos unless he’s offered a new contract. However, clubs are likely to take a look at the Colombia international, who’s been linked with a move away from Ibrox for quite some time.
Ryan Kent is another option. He’s attracted Premier League clubs in the past, most notably Leeds United.
He’s English, still quite young at the age of 24 – although he’ll be 25 in January – and has done well under Steven Gerrard.
However, he’s been injured for a good chunk of this season and his form hasn’t been great either.
Nathan Patterson is probably the prime candidate, in our opinion.
The 19-year-old right-back isn’t getting much game-time despite his huge potential and he attracted bids from Everton in the summer [Paul Joyce].
He’s definitely worth over £7.5million and selling him would not see the quality of Gerrard’s first-choice starting line-up drop.
No one wants to see Patterson go – we don’t either.
But it probably makes the most sense unless we start selling numerous players and deplete Gerrard’s squad.
In other Rangers news, Chris Sutton was wowed by this “sensational” Gers player in the draw at Brondby.