Rangers face a series of tense transfer battles before they can even think about the first Old Firm derby of the season at Celtic Park.
The Ibrox side are looking for as many as four new players before Friday’s 11pm deadline whilst there are a number of Rangers stars teetering on an exit.
Come Saturday morning things could look a lot different at both Ibrox and Celtic Park but before then, the two clubs could do battle in the transfer market.
That’s because reports in Italy are suggesting that Celtic are considering a late move to hijack Rangers interest in a leading Croatian international.
Josip Brekalo at centre of Rangers v Celtic battle
Fiorentina winger Josip Brekalo finds himself out of favour in Italy as the transfer window bottlenecks.
Rangers were mentioned as Brekalo suitors earlier in the window whilst the links have reappeared going into the transfer period’s final moments.
Reports in Italy have claimed that Rangers are leading the race to sign Brekalo, with the 26-year-old also wanted by Venezia this summer.
But the latest coming out of Italy has suggested that Old Firm rivals Celtic could be about to interrupt those Rangers links.
In the August 27th edition of Italian paper Corriere Fiorentino, it was claimed that Celtic hold an ‘interest’ in the Croatia international.
This is quite a reputable source in Florence so Rangers fans will naturally take notice, even if some might feel the two Old Firm clubs have been mixed up in Italy.
Rangers look to add another Croatian to their ranks
Brekalo is expected to go out on loan and has found himself on the bench for each of Fiorentina’s two Serie A games this season.
Coming through at Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia, Josip Brekalo joined Wolfsburg for £8.5m (€10m) in 2016 and has had loan stints at VfB Stuttgart, Torino and most recently Hadjuk Split in his career.
Rangers are known to be on the hunt for a new left-wing option with a number of names being linked to Ibrox in recent days.
Egyptian winger Ibrahim Adel looks set to move to Spain – although there are issues holding up a deal – whist the Gers continue to explore different options in the market.
Should Rangers and Celtic go head-to-head in the battle for Brekalo, the Gers will hope the club’s historical links to Croatian players goes in their favour.
The Gers have had Dado Prso, Nikica Jelavic, Niko Kranjcar, Borna Barisic and Niko Katic turn out for the club in recent seasons.
