Rangers eye Eduard Spertsyan ahead of Celtic as geo-political issue emerges in transfer pursuit
Rangers are on the trail of Krasnodar’s Eduard Spertsyan after having been made aware of the attacking midfielder and ended up impressed by what they saw, HITC reports.
According to Graeme Bailey via the outlet’s website on 12 April the Light Blues and Celtic are both interested in Armenian, who told TuttoMercatoWeb earlier this season (23 October) he believed it would cost €15million [£12.8m] to convince his club president to let him go.
But both sides of the Old Firm reportedly face being held back in their attempts to bring in “one of the biggest talents in Russian football” due to an issue with British clubs signing players from the country, in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
Chelsea’s failed pursuit of Arsen Zakharyan from Dynamo Moscow and Davinson Sanchez leaving Tottenham for Galatasaray rather than Spartak Moscow are both cited as recent examples of this in effect, meaning Spertsyan, 23, is considered more likely to join one of the Eredivisie giants, Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven or Ajax.
Rangers target can’t be brought to Ibrox?
If Chelsea weren’t able to bring in a target from the Russian Premier League when they have infamously signed virtually everyone they could find in the past few windows it probably suggests this one is unlikely at Ibrox.
It isn’t too hard to see why Spertsyan, with 27 league goals and 22 assists across the past three campaigns, is attracting a lot of attention.
But with options in the Netherlands seemingly still open to him it seems logical that he will end up there in light of the geo-political situation between Britain and Russia in the wake of the invasion.
Philippe Clement will no-doubt be looking to add talents like the 25-cap international this summer but it seems unlikely that a push for him would be the best use of the Belgian and his staff’s time in the circumstances.
The Rangers boss has Todd Cantwell in the central attacking midfield area, as well as Tom Lawrence, but there are suspicions that he isn’t entirely sold on the ex-Norwich man and the injury-plagued former Derby captain hasn’t consistently been able to show his best at Ibrox.
Clement started the latter in the 3-3 draw with Celtic last weekend and the decision didn’t pay off, although Cantwell had himself only recently returned from injury.
It looks as though the Light Blues and their Old Firm rivals are in the same boat for this transfer race, and both could end up disappointed.
In other Rangers news, another SPFL club have been told to keep their mouth shut over a Light Blues controversy.
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