Ex-Rangers midfielder Christian Nerlinger has been spotted jetting into Glasgow alongside prospective new Celtic signing Nicolas Kuhn.
The former Ibrox star has been snapped at Glasgow Airport alongside the Rapid Vienna winger who looks set to complete a £2.8m move to Parkhead.
Former German international Christian Nerlinger – who spent three injury-hit seasons at Rangers between 2001 and 2004 – is one of the Austrian winger’s representatives.
The 50-year-old former Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund midfielder spent time as Bayern Munich’s sporting director and is strongly connected in the world of football business.
It’s said that alongside fellow agent Fabian Dingler, Kuhn and Nerlinger were “whisked away” by Parkhead reps.
Christian Nerlinger, Nicolas Kuhn, & Celtic
Rangers reportedly held discussions with Nerlinger over a Director-of-Football-type role back in 2014.
Now representing prospective new Celtic signing Nicolas Kuhn, we’re sure our friends to the east will be happy that a former Rangers midfielder is dishing out handshakes in the Parkhead boardroom.
Especially considering Christian Nerlinger reportedly earned £1.8m from the EBT tax-avoidance scheme which ultimately led to Rangers’ collapse.
There’s no two ways about it however – Christian Nerlinger’s time at Rangers was an unmitigated disaster for a number of reasons.
One of these is his contribution to the financial collapse of the club, although we can’t really blame the midfielder for that.
But the fact Rangers paid Borussia Dortmund £2.5m to sign the midfielder only for him to barely kick a ball in three years is reflective of the club’s disastrous transfer policy of the era.
Rangers transfer window stutters as Celtic spend
As for Celtic’s move for Nicholas Kuhn, we’re used to the Parkhead side signing £3m or so project players with mixed results.
Whilst we’ll wait and see how the winger does in Scotland, Rangers fans will note the Parkhead side spending money to bolster their title challenge.
Rangers meanwhile – after a rather astonishing £21m summer spend – are forced to shop in the bargain basement for loan deals or wait until transfer fees come into the side through outgoing players.
There are still a couple of weeks left in January window and Rangers are still expecting to do transfer business.
But going by Philippe Clement’s latest transfer update, it’s proving just about as difficult a window as we all expected it would be.
So far Rangers have only completed one deal in the window, pipping Celtic to the loan signing of Wolves attacker Fabio Silva.
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