There’s a sense of déjà vu about the curious current transfer saga involving Rangers starlet Nathan Young-Coombes.
The 18-year-old forward joined the Gers from Chelsea in January 2019 and hit the ground running for the club’s youth teams, starring in a successful Alkass Cup campaign and scoring the winning goal in the Scottish Youth Cup final.
He hasn’t done enough to break into the senior squad, though, and has been strongly linked with a move away from Ibrox.
It isn’t the first time he’s been tipped to head back south of the border, though.
In the summer, it was asserted that the England youth international was returning to London to join West Ham.
The proposed move was presented as more or less a done deal. Yet, nothing ever materialised and Young-Coombes went back to turning out for the Gers youth teams, even scoring in a 3-0 win for the U18s over Celtic in November.
Now, it’s possible that history is repeating itself.
Throughout January and the early part of February, Young-Coombes was once again linked with a return to London, this time to join ambitious EFL Championship side Brentford.
Late last month, Football Transfers reported that the Bees were set to complete the signing of the teenager before the end of the transfer window.
That particular deadline came and went without an announcement, but more reports followed, with the Daily Record claiming on 4th February that the young striker was ‘on the verge’ of joining the Brentford B team on a permanent deal.
Fast-forward almost a month, though, and it seems that, once again, no deal has materialised.
There has been no announcement from either club regarding his future and while the player himself doesn’t mention Rangers in his Twitter bio, he included blue, white and red emojis and the ‘WATP’ hashtag in his last tweet in mid-January and his profile photo is him in action for the Gers.
With all Academy fixtures currently suspended, it isn’t possible to see to what extent Young-Coombes, whose current deal expires in the summer, is still a part of the Gers coaching staff’s plans.
However, despite the latest round of reports linking him with an exit, for now, it looks as though he’s still very much a Rangers player.
Another teenage Rangers attacker made a comeback for his loan club on Saturday after breaching Covid regulations and drew a foul from a fellow Ibrox loanee who was subsequently sent off for the first time in his career.
