Speculation may have died down a little around one of Rangers’ most in-form stars, but anything is possible until the window officially closes on Monday evening.
At the beginning of 2025, a departure felt like, if not an inevitability, then certainly a possibility.
Rangers opened preliminary talks regarding the sale of Cyriel Dessers three weeks ago. And, after losing his place to Hamza Igamane, Dessers himself cast doubt on his future, admitting that he needed to hold clear-the-air talks with the Ibrox bosses.
It really is a funny and relentlessly unpredictable game, football.
From first-choice to third-choice in the blinking of an eye, Rangers’ number nine is suddenly climbing the ladder again. All that frustration has been washed away.
Dessers was outstanding against Union Saint Gilloise in the Europa League on Thursday night, as a result, he was rewarded with something he hasn’t had for months. A second successive Gers start.
Does this mean the door has now closed, under lock and key, ahead of Monday’s deadline?
Cagliari remove Cyriel Dessers obstacle but Rangers stay looks likely
Atlanta United shifted their focus to Middlesbrough’s Emmanuel Latte Lath. St Etienne opted to pursue younger alternatives. Links with Leganes and Empoli never really went any further.
The most likely destination throughout the window, meanwhile, appears to have been Serie A outfit Cagliari.
Gazzetta dello Sport reported in mid-January that Cyriel Dessers was Cagliari’s ‘priority target’. Though, due to the costs involved in signing a player Rangers paid £4.5 million for just a year-and-a-half ago, the report indicated that the only way Dessers would end up in Sardinia would be if Cagliari first found a way to get Gianluca Lapadula off the books.
And find a way they have, albeit maybe too late in the day to really move the needle.
Lapadula, the veteran former AC Milan frontman, joined second-tier outfit Spezia on Friday. That is one major obstacle cleared for Cagliari, then. The 34-year-old Peru international was allegedly their highest earner on £40,000-a-week.
But Rangers will be in no rush to let Dessers go, you would suspect, given the lack of time they will have to find a replacement. Had Lapadula been shipped out of the Unipol Domus a week or two earlier, perhaps there may have been a deal there to be done.
Now? Well, it’s safe to say time is not on Cagliari’s side.
Barry Ferguson applauds Dessers turnaround after Europa League masterclass
Interestingly, new reports are indicating that Cagliari may have turned their attention to Torino targetman Antonio Sanabria instead. Is this a sign of acceptance, a team looking elsewhere in the knowledge that Cyriel Dessers’ Rangers story still has a few chapters to be written.
Ibrox icon Barry Ferguson thinks Dessers has seldom played better in Rangers colours. The 30-year-old did not manage to score in a fifth successive game against Union Saint Gilloise but his mesmerising assist for Vaclav Cerny’s clincher was worth the admission alone.
“Cyriel Dessers put in one of, if not his best ever, performances in a blue jersey up front,” Ferguson told the Daily Record after a win which fast-tracks Rangers into the last-16 of the Europa League.
“It was a true team display from a squad down to the bare bones and they got the win they needed which, along with a little help from elsewhere, booked their place in the top eight.
“Dessers has certainly hit a purple patch of form. He had scored six goals in his four previous games but Thursday night was as good as I can remember him performing outside the box.
“His hold-up and link play was immaculate and his assist for Cerny’s winner deserves huge praise.
