Rangers are facing a race against time to sell players to make room for Philippe Clement to make his own signings.
One player who could be heading out the door is Ianis Hagi with reports linking the Romania international to a return home.
Journalist Emmanuel Rosu has claimed that Rapid Bucharest are “pushing hard” to sign the 26-year old playmaker but, as yet, there have been no indications of a transfer fee.
Ianis Hagi nearing Rangers exit in homecoming transfer
Rosu has already spoken to Rangers News about Hagi’s situation with a feeling that an exit hasn’t been chased by midfielder:
“He likes Rangers a lot, he didn’t leave because he wanted to,” Rosu said towards the end of June.
“He was told that he was not going to play too much under Beale and that is why he left last year.
“He had also just recovered from injury.
“I believe no decision regarding his future was made, there will be plenty of time after the Euros.”
Either way, Hagi’s status in the B team makes it unlikely that he will still be part of Rangers squad when the window shuts.
That his last appearance for the Light Blues was against Morton in the league cup at Ibrox feels almost insulting.
Philippe Clement needs Hagi exit to kickstart squad rebuild
Philippe Clement knows that he has a lot of work to do in the remaining days of the transfer window, however, he knows that he also needs luck to be on his side with targets already lined up:
“We’re not there where we want to be end of August but I don’t think it’s in one team in the world.
“The case, and I know everywhere supporters want that but it’s not possible.
“So, everybody’s working hard on that.
“How fast things go, you never have control on that because it has to do with yourself, what you can spend, with other teams whether they want to let players go and how much they ask for that and it’s about convincing also players.
“So, there are several players who are convinced that Rangers is a good place, but you still need negotiations around that.”
Players like Abdallah Sima and Albion Rahmani might well have been on a transfer shortlist depending on either qualification for the Champions League or being able to move players on.
It has been the same story all summer.
Rangers already had too big a squad and too big a wage bill.
Nils Koppen managed to secure younger players to replace those that left at the end of the season but there is still a lot of work to do and a lot of players on big wages who aren’t providing value for money.
To sign more senior players now would only put them further down the pecking order and waste even more valuable resources.
Hagi would have been an upgrade on several members of the current team.
The problem is, his wages could be reallocated to a player more suitable for the system that Clement is trying to implement.
Who’d be a football manager?
