Stig Inge Bjornebye to seal long-term Rangers stay with January transfers as Danny Rohl alarm bells ring
Stig Inge Bjornebye faces a massive January transfer window at Rangers, despite only being on board in a temporary position.
Rangers are heading for a vitally important transfer window, as they look to salvage any sort of success.
After a disappointing summer of business, Danny Rohl and the American owners appear to be on the same page regarding what the squad needs this winter.
Rohl has hinted that Rangers will target players from the local market in January, after only one of their 14 summer arrivals was signed from another club in Scotland, Lyall Cameron from Dundee.
Stig Inge Bjornebye set for long-term Rangers stay
With Rangers sitting nine points off current Premiership leaders Hearts, their hopes of lifting the title for the first time since 2020-21 are hanging by a thread.
But it’s not just a crucial January window to keep in the fight this season, but given how poor the Americans’ first transfer window in charge was, they must turn a page quickly next month.
To help them achieve that, Rangers appointed Bjornebye as football consultant and advisor on a short-term basis earlier this month, with the hope that the former Liverpool player can help identify and complete some quality signings in the New Year.
However, in the print edition of the Sunday Mail, Michael Gannon believes that Bjornebye may earn himself an extended contract if the January window goes well.
“(Wilfried) Nancy and Rohl are in the same boat with the clock ticking towards the bells,” the journalist began.
“The reshuffle is still ongoing, so Rangers are now going to rely on a freelancer to come in to help with the window. It will be interesting to see how Stig Inge Bjornebye gets on in the coming weeks at Ibrox.
“It’s hardly an ideal set-up, but if he has a decent hit rate, then perhaps he could stick around longer. If not, he’ll be off into the sunset – and the Gers will have more mess to mop up.”
Bjornebye’s main Rangers transfer task will be a striker
Ahead of Rangers’ 1-0 win over Motherwell on Saturday, Rohl admitted that he was still looking for his starting striker for the remainder of the season.
However, it was Thelo Aasgaard who found the winner for the Gers against Jens Berthel Askou’s side, with Youssef Chermiti being withdrawn on 77 minutes to be replaced by Bojan Miovski.
Both of those players, Miovski in particular, given his Aberdeen exploits, looked to have the profiles of strikers who could score plenty of goals for Rangers this season, but that simply hasn’t been the case.
So, with James Tavernier and Nicolas Raskin joint-top scorers with three, the signing of an out-and-out goalscorer in January is of the utmost importance.
- Rangers have scored 25 Premiership goals this season, the same amount as eighth-placed Dundee United
- They are averaging just 1.4 goals scored per game, with Hibernian, Celtic and Hearts all registering higher numbers than that
- Rangers’ next game is against St Mirren at Ibrox on Tuesday
Danilo is another player who simply hasn’t hit the heights many expected of him following his summer 2023 move to Ibrox from Feyenoord, and could well be moved on from in January.
So, should Bjornebye be able to help Rangers find their star striker this winter, then the Norwegian may well earn himself a permanent deal at Ibrox.
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