Malik Tillman seemed certain to be a Rangers player at one point with Michael Beale professing his love for the Bayern Munich midfielder.
Confusion about the nature of the option-to-buy clause came to a head when it was announced that the German giants had cancelled the deal and that the Light Blues were to be compensated as a result.
Now, to make matters worse, it looks as though Malik Tillman could be heading to a name Rangers fans won’t want to hear – Eintracht Frankfurt – according to The Rangers Review.
Malik Tillman and Rangers move breakdown as Frankfurt move in
The fee that Bayern are said to be demanding is £6m plus add ons which, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t that much more than the £5.8m deal we were said to have agreed.
The report claims that Rangers had activated the clause and were hoping to make the transfer concrete, however, the Bundesliga champions had other plans.
A £9m buy back fee for Malik Tillman would still have made Rangers money if he had returned to Bayern from a permanent move but they are obviously looking for a deal that suits them better given the impact that he made in Glasgow.
With his brother suggesting that he was happy in Scotland, Malik Tillman seemed certain to sign for Rangers but there has always been something that just didn’t add up.
Whether the player himself had a change of heart or Michael Beale saw Todd Cantwell playing in the same role to good effect and changed his mind, we’ll never know.
What is known is that Frankfurt have deeper pockets than us and £6m for Malik Tillmand as a home grown player with outstanding potential, is something of a bargain after Rangers missed out.
A bargain, it looks like we have missed out on.
