Rangers will have to use every possible aspect of the transfer market to give Philippe Clement, or whoever replaces him, the best team possible.
If the manager is to have a squad capable of qualifying for and competing in the Champions League, players who have performed in the continent’s elite competition isn’t a bad place to start.
One such player is the obvious Abdallah Sima whose Brest side were on the wrong end of a 3-0 score line to Paris Saint Germain in a Ligue 1 derby.
Abdallah Sima draws blank in Champions League near miss
A report by The Athletic in the autumn was full of praise for the Senegal international’s impact out on loan for the fourth season in a row from Brighton, a team who already have strikers that they might regret losing.
Deniz Undaz and Viktor Gyokeres are two of Europe’s finest bagsmen and left the south coast for a relative pittance with Sima’s form being compared to the former Seagulls’ strikers.
Against PSG, Sima was so nearly at it again on the biggest stage with a towering header crashing off the woodwork, another reminder of what Rangers are missing this season from set-pieces.
Will Rangers go in for Sima again after summer move collapsed?
Nils Koppen confessed that Rangers tried to sign Sima in the summer, going as far as to suggest that a fee had been agreed with Brighton only for the player (or agent) to price themselves out of a move:
“The impression was that we weren’t going to go back for Sima, but that’s not the case,” said Koppen.
“We made an effort to bring Sima back to Glasgow permanently with a good offer, a higher fee than the one we agreed for Oscar Cortes.
“We tried to convince the player and the agent but the numbers were unrealistic so we pushed back on it.”
With Sima’s contract expiring in 2026, Koppen now he to decide whether or not to go back again in the summer now that the wage bill has been cut.
If he doesn’t have suitors with deeper pockets that is.
