Any team who has a player with a goal every two games for the season will miss them and Rangers, with Abdallah Sima, are no different.
The 22-year old has, arguably, been one of the Light Blues best loan signings in terms of contribution and it’s no wonder Gers boss Philippe Clement is keen to make his stay a permanent one.
The issue though, is that Premier League footballers don’t come cheap and Rangers will have to fork out for Abdallah Sima, which asks a few questions of a report claiming that a club record could be broken.
Can Rangers make permanent Abdallah Sima deal work?
Brighton are said to value Sima at around £10-15m according to The Inside Track podcast, basically, in the ball park of what Dick Advocaat paid for Tore Andre Flo, and have claimed that Champions League qualification could seal the deal.
This isn’t the early 2000s though.
There are two additional reasons why this sort of fee just doesn’t seem possible even with Champions League money.
Mohamed Diomande and Oscar Cortes.
Technically, the two January signings are on loan until the summer but we have an obligation to buy Diomande for £4.3m and an option to buy Cortes.
The fee for Cortes hasn’t been disclosed, it maybe hasn’t been pre-arranged but Lens paid in the region of £3.8m for his services last summer and will probably want their money back.
The Colombian might be injured but, he has made enough of an impression to sugges that he could be a bargain at that sort of price.
What we have also found is that Fabio Silva can be equally as effective off the left-hand side, if anything, he is stronger there than through the middle.
Another loan spell has already been talked about by his dad and it could be that he comes back up to Ibrox with Abdallah Sima no longer available in the squad.
Cortes and Silva could more than carry the absence created by not being able to afford Sima.
The dream would be selling fringe players like Scott Wright, Ben Davies, Sam Lammers and Jose Cifuentes so that money could be released to help fund such an audacious move.
Qualifying for the group stages of the Champions League would also help.
Ironically, Abdallah Sima could help fund his own move to Rangers if he scores the goals that win the league.
