Rangers’ hopes of signing Abdallah Sima have taken a fresh twist as Brighton step up a summer of heavy recruitment.
The Gers are known to remain in the hunt for the Senegalese attacker, who impressed during a season-long loan stint at Ibrox last year.
Philippe Clement has been open about his desire to bring Sima back to Glasgow and similarly, the 23-year-old forward has been making waves about a return to Rangers.
Sima’s response to Rangers’ first-leg draw with Dynamo Kiev was the latest signal from Sima about hoping for a return to Govan.
Now, Rangers fans will take notice of new Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler ramping up the Premier League club’s already quite hectic incoming transfer business as the summer window bottlenecks.
Brighton to spend £115m on new attack
Brighton have already been busy investing in their squad following the appointment of young German coach Hurzeler.
The 31-year-old is the youngest permanent manager in the history of the Premier League and had spent the summer running the rule over Abdallah Sima and his teammates after joining from St Pauli.
But at the same time Brighton have been busy investing in their attack, Rangers-linked Sima was nowhere to be seen in the club’s final two friendlies of pre-season.
Earlier in the summer, the Seagulls splashed £33m to sign Newcastle United winger Yankuba Minteh.
Brighton also moved to bring Mohamed Diomande’s former teammate Ibrahim Osman to the south coast on a £16m deal from FC Nordsjælland.
Now, the club has also just announced the £25m signing of Germany U21 winger Brajan Gruda from FC Mainz with Brighton’s transfer business not expected to end there.
There is widespread reporting that Brighton have activated the £40m release clause in the contract of highly-rated Leeds United attacker Georginio Rutter.
The Dutch forward has now reportedly accepted Brighton’s proposal and is closing in on a move to the club.
Whilst Brighton have sold Denis Undav to VfB Stuttgart this summer, Abdallah Sima now faces serious competition to break into the Premier League club’s first team this season.
With Minteh, Osman, Gruda and now Rutter coming into the team, Brighton already have Simon Adingra, Kaoru Mitoma and Jeremy Sarmiento as attacking options in their squad.
England youth international Amario Cozier-Duberry also moved to the club at the end of his Arsenal contract this summer.
In the striker position, Sima would find himself competing with the likes of Joao Pedro, Julio Enciso and Danny Welbeck.
Whilst Brighton look set to spend the guts of £115m on their attack, Hurzeler has also seen substantial investment in the middle of the pitch.
The Seagulls have spent £25.4m to sign PSV Eindhoven midfielder Mats Weiffer, whilst Malick Yalcouye joins on a £6m deal from IFK Gothenburg.
Rangers Sima transfer pursuit up in the air
Whilst it would be nice to see Rangers spend almost £150m in revamping their squad this summer, the Gers don’t have the financial luxuries afforded Tony Bloom’s Brighton.
In fairness to the Premier League side, Rangers can probably take proportional inspiration from the club’s immense success in player trading in recent seasons.
Brighton have banked over £250m from the sales of Yves Bissouma, Alexis Mac Allister, Ben White, Marc Cucurella and Moises Caicedo over the last few years.
But it remains unclear just how much Brighton expect Rangers to fork out to bring Abdallah Sima back to Ibrox this summer.
Whilst it’s clear Sima will have little to no opportunity at Brighton this season, AMEX chiefs are known to drive a hard bargain and the club paid over £6m to sign Sima back in 2021.
Rangers manager Philippe Clement has also previously been clear that the Ibrox club are not in a position to stump up Brighton’s current asking price.
Following Rangers’ failure to reach the Champions League, this is a situation which has not changed.
Despite that, there remains hopes Rangers might be able to strike a deal for Sima as the window creeps to a close.
As things stand, Rangers would need Brighton to lower their asking price or reach a creative agreement over the future of the talented forward.
“I’ve been in touch with him, of course,” said Clement when asked about Sima in mid-July.
“He’s like one of my sons. Abda loves the club. Abda loves the way of playing we had last season and his role in that. He loved his teammates and the staff.
“But at the end of the day, Brighton is the owner so it’s all about the money then. At the moment it’s not possible.
“But we will see along the way if there comes a possibility because we would love to get him back. We will see if it is possible.”
Abdallah Sima scored 15 goals in the first half of the season at Ibrox last year but a crushing injury sustained at AFCON with Senegal devastated the second half of his campaign.
Scoring in the 3-3 Old Firm draw with Celtic at Ibrox, Sima also had a goal controversially disallowed in the 1-0 Scottish Cup Final defeat to the Parkhead side.
