Glasgow Rangers and Russell Martin made a move to sign an “immaculate” £2m player for nothing, as per Sky Sports.
Martin delighted with Rangers after 3-0 win vs Viktoria Plzen
The Gers took another step in the right direction towards Champions League qualification on Tuesday evening, beating Viktoria Plzen 3-0 at Ibrox in the first leg of their third qualifying round tie.
Martin, who was left fuming with his Rangers side after a 1-1 Scottish Premiership draw with Motherwell, rung the changes and left out captain James Tavernier and star midfielder Nicolas Raskin.
However, two goals from summer signing Djeidi Gassama and one from Cyriel Dessers puts the Gers in a strong position to progress to the next round. Talking after the Ibrox victory, Martin said via PA:
“I really enjoyed it. I’m proud of the guys. We had a really difficult evening on Saturday, just because there was not enough running in behind, aggression, intensity with the ball. We were not just ranting and raving, we showed a lot of clips and we tried to do a lot of learning in the meeting room and on the pitch in the last couple of days and they took it on brilliantly.
“The guys that came in the team were fantastic. We’re going to need everyone. You don’t get dropped from this team, people come in and out quite a lot because we need to be fresh.”
Oliver Antman
Go Ahead Eagles
£4m
Oscar Cortes
Lens
£4m
Thelo Aasgaard
Luton
£3.5m
Emmanuel Fernandez
Peterborough
£3.5m
Djeidi Gassama
Sheffield Wednesday
£2.2m
Joe Rothwell
Bournemouth
Undisclosed
Lyall Cameron
Dundee
Undisclosed
Mikey Moore
Tottenham
Loan
Nasser Djiga
Wolves
Loan
Max Aarins
Bournemouth
Loan
So far, 10 new additions have been made by Martin and the 49ers Enterprises, with more still potentially on the way before the September 1 deadline.
However, one player Rangers missed out on was Conor Coady, who swapped Leicester City for Wrexham in a £2m transfer.
Rangers moved to sign Coady for £0 – Sky Sports
As per Sky Sports reporter Rob Dorsett, Rangers tried to sign Coady on a free transfer from Leicester, with the defender believing that he would be able to walk away from the King Power for nothing.
Instead, Leicester managed to secure a fee for the “immaculate” England international, who signed a two-year deal in Wales.
“Leicester will sell no one on the cheap. Look at the £2m they got for 32-year-old Conor Coady, who only had one year left on his contract, from Wrexham. Coady thought he would be allowed to walk away for free, with Leicester saving his not-inconsiderable wages, but Leicester dug their heels in and said no to a free transfer to Rangers.”
Emmanuel Fernandez and Nasser Djiga have been the centre-back additions so far, rivalling John Souttar, Clinton Nsiala, Leon King and Ben Davies, but with the latter linked with Birmingham City, another defensive arrival shouldn’t be ruled out.
