Rangers sleepwalk into £9m Bright Osayi-Samuel trap after Thursday transfer news emerges
Although Rangers have enjoyed an extremely impressive start to the summer transfer window, they are sleepwalking into a £9million trap in their pursuit of Bright Osayi-Samuel.
Michael Beale previously revealed that he wanted to make as many as a dozen changes to his Gers first-team squad this summer, and Kieran Dowell, Jack Butland and Dujon Furlong have subsequently been brought through the Ibrox gates.
However, the emerging transfer interest in Fenerbahce full-back Osayi-Samuel is a move that doesn’t seem to make sense on numerous levels.
Turkish publication Sporx reported on Thursday (8 June) that Rangers had tabled an offer for the 25-year-old, with the club currently waiting on a reply from Fenerbahce.
The ex-QPR player previously had suitors from the Premier League, with both Leeds United and Bournemouth interested in his services for a hefty fee of £9million. [A Spor, 29 May]
Osayi-Samuel started his career out as a winger, but in recent years has dropped further down the pitch to a right-back position that Rangers are now well stocked in.
Beale already has captain James Tavernier, who was the club’s top goalscorer last season with 16 Scottish Premiership goals, to call upon in this position, while the arrival of Sterling from Chelsea adds further depth from the bench.
With two right-back options already at his disposal, forking out a significant portion of the club’s transfer kitty on year another right-back makes no sense whatsoever.
BBC Sport journalist Tom English previously reported that Rangers would have a £15million wage kitty to spend this summer after the departure of the likes of Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent on lucrative contracts, however, with three additions already through the doors, a portion of this will already have vanished.
And with at least one striker still on Beale’s summer shopping list, spending a large chunk of this wages purse, let alone the hefty outright fee, seems like a move not worth making.
Rangers have made a number of shrewd moves in the transfer market since Beale’s arrival at Ibrox, but Osayi-Samuel is one to stay away from.
In other Rangers news, work permit issues have now emerged which means that the club may not be able to complete a major signing this summer.