Rangers have had one eye on South American talents this summer but continue to miss out as the transfer window begins to bottleneck.
Led by new director of recruitment Nils Koppen, the Ibrox side have been looking at emerging markets as they look to snare top young talents before they get a switch to a big five league.
We’ve seen Rangers raid Scandinavia, Brazil and even Morocco this summer, but there have been a number of Latin American talents who’ve slipped through the net.
For every Jefte or Oscar Cortes, there’s been a Jose Cordoba or Damian Garcia and the Ibrox side’s luck is appearing to run dry across the Atlantic.
Two Rangers-linked South American midfielders are now lining up moves elsewhere as Philippe Clement admits the club are up against it in the transfer window.
‘No Rangers bid’ for Puerta
There have been murmurs about Rangers interest in Bayer Leverkusen’s Colombian midfield talent Gustavo Puerta all summer long.
The Gers have a solid relationship with players from the region having just signed the aforementioned Cortes and having had Alfredo Morelos and Juan Alegría at the club.
Rangers links to the 21-year-old then took on a new dimension when reports in Denmark began to claim that the Ibrox side had bid for Puerta already this summer.
This comes with Danish club FC Copenhagen hoping to secure Gustavo Puerta on a season-long loan deal.
But there is some conjecture surrounding those Rangers bid claims as Football Scotland reveal that there has been no Ibrox offer this summer.
However the report claims that Rangers did hold an interest in Puerta in January and held discussions with the player’s agent, who also represents Oscar Cortes.
Zambrano moves to England
Rangers have also been linked with a move for Ecuadorean midfielder Oscar Zambrano in the past.
Back in January, it was claimed by journalist Dean Jones that Rangers were tailing the 20-year-old Quito star alongside Premier League clubs.
Still technically contracted to Ecuadorean club LDU Quito, Zambrano represents exactly the kind of deal Rangers are expected to try and strike under Koppen.
But once again Rangers have seen another transfer link fall by the wayside as Hull City announce a season-long loan for the midfielder.
Oscar Zambrano joins the Tigers in the English Championship this season with an option-to-buy inserted into the deal dependent on the player’s progress.
Rangers continue to be active in the transfer market but Philippe Clement has been clear that there are several in his squad who will need to move on first.
