Tasos Douvikas would have been an outstanding signing for Rangers, however, it doesn’t look like it is one that is going to happen.
A rumoured £10m transfer fee is reason enough but when reports of a £7m bid materialised, there appeared to be a small light of hope emerging.
This has now been put to bed though with Tasos Douvikas not being pursued by Rangers, according to Heart and Hand.
Writing on Twitter, the fan media outlet confirmed that they had spoken to the club who have said:
“Nothing in the Douvakis links. Club not pursuing him.”
And just like that, a transfer rumour dies.
Why Tasos Douvikas to Rangers always seemed slim
Douvikas always seemed a little too rich for our taste.
Utrecht reportedly wanting £10m meant that Rangers were never likely to be serious contenders for his signature, regardless of how good he might or might not be.
As we have seen with the fee for Sam Lammers and the reported offer for Cyriel Dessers, a fee of around half of that is likely to be our highest fee paid this summer.
What the fee for Tasos Douvikas does is make Rangers inability to see Giorgios Giakoumakis as a no brainer a couple of seasons ago when he was available for just £2m.
To make things worse, the former Celtic striker had scored even more goals than Douvikas just has, in a team that got relegated.
The Eredivisie is similar to the Scottish Premiership now in that teams are no longer letting their best players leave for peanuts.
Rangers would expect £10-20m for a prolific goalscorer so it shouldn’t be a surprise when a Dutch club does the same for a young, promising international.
Ryan Kent for £7m, was an outlier when you consider how often Rangers have spent over £5m in the last 20-odd years.
A player trading model won’t succeed if Michael Beale is spending £10m on one player, which seems the most obvious reason why there isn’t any interest rather than a lack of quality.
