Doug Ward

Wed 5 July 2023 20:40, UK

Rangers look set to miss out on signing Wolves defender Dion Sanderson with Birmingham City edging closer to a deal, according to the Daily Record.

The newspaper reported via their website on Wednesday (05:02pm) that Sanderson, 23, was tracked by the Gers after he impressed on loan at Birmingham last season.

On 1 January, Football Scotland reported that Wolves wanted £3million to sell the centre-back permanently as Rangers hunted his signature.

However, the Daily Record now relay quotes by Birmingham boss John Eustace which suggest that the Gers’ bid to sign Sanderson is dead.

Eustace said: “I’m certainly hopeful. I know Dion has got a lot of admirers out there. We are in the pecking order to try and sign him, but I do know there’s other clubs that will want to sign him as well.

“Dion knows what I think of him. I’ve said on a number of occasions in interviews how much I like him as a player and how much I respect him, if we can get him that would be fantastic.”

Oh well

We’re not going to lose any sleep over this one, to be honest.

Sanderson may have done well at St Andrew’s last season but that was at the bottom end of the English Championship so he’s hardly proven himself to be someone who can star in the Champions League with Rangers.

Eustace has seemed dead set on signing the defender permanently too.

He was quoted by the Birmingham Mail on 23 February as waxing lyrical about the former Cardiff and Sunderland loanee.

“Dion has been a fantastic player for us this season. He is a true leader, seeing his development last season from when I was at QPR to now is fantastic.

“I knew that he had got that in his locker – that’s why we brought him in at the start of the season.

“He is a player we want to keep and to lose him now until the end of the season is a massive blow to us. However, it gives somebody else the opportunity now to step up and lead by example. I am pretty sure he is going to be out for a large part of the remainder of the season.

“Absolutely I want the club to look at signing him. It’s an injury but he is a young player who has had a fantastic season up to now. I think he has proved his worth, the fans love him to bits, like we all do here at the football club.”

Eustace has clearly been planting the seed for a while so it’s no shock to see him heading to Blues instead of the Light Blues, who have already made big moves this summer.

Michael Beale has added to almost every area of his squad but it still remains to be seen if he’ll add a new centre-back or two to his line-up.

Dujon Sterling has come in at right-back, presumably as cover for James Tavernier, but there could be some shifting about involving Ben Davies.

We’ll see how that pans out but Sanderson isn’t good enough for this level. We need to look at Premier League clubs for players who are on the edge of their first team and not players they’re loaning out to struggling Championship sides.

In other Rangers news, the Gers have been told to match a £5million bid for a player they want to sign.