After all the hype about Sima and Kuchta, Rangers’ biggest danger on Thursday is clearly Nicolae Claudiu Stanciu, who scored that crazy good goal in Praha and is on fire now domestically with 5 in his last 3 league outings as well.
The 27 year old AM was a massive thorn in Rangers’ side in the first leg, and there’s no denying he will be the biggest threat by far on Thursday.
In fact, he’s possibly a signing Rangers should look at – 42 caps for his country, which is of course Romania, and Ianis Hagi knows him.
Market value?
Said to only be around £5M, and Rangers historically have great track records for nabbing the best players of their opponents in Europe – look at Daniel Prodan (RIP) and of course Borna Barisic.
Stanciu’s deal still has a couple of years to go, but Rangers could certainly sign a lot worse than a talent like his.
But first things first is stopping him on Thursday night.
Kuchta and Sima were deeply disappointing, kept quiet by Helander and Goldson, but Stanciu was electric and Rangers had to work hard to stop him last week.
He’s a gifted player, and while we might look at picking him up in the future, the here and now sees us needing to keep him out.
That won’t be easy.
Agreed he would be an excellent signing.
Think that Royal Antwerp player Frank Boya was a decent player for them against us pretty solid. Gerrard seemed to be in a conversation with him at full time wonder if he would be interested in bringing him into the the midfield.
One of the advantages of playing in Europe at this level is you get to see some really good players up close. All the better if they are from leagues that we can pinch them from. I’m not sure if many players from Czech football would see the Scottish league as much of a step up though Rangers and Gerrard have some pulling power.
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