Rangers have almost definitely missed out on Dutch maestro Joey Veerman after the Heerenveen star made it clear to his club he wants a move to Serie A, with Hellas Verona making a move as well as CL-bound Atalanta heavily interested.

The 22-year old had been majorly linked with a move to Rangers, among a clutch of European heavyweights eager to secure the brilliant midfielder, but Atalanta had stolen a march by their confirmed participation in the CL.

But it’s midtable Verona who appear to be at the head of the queue after making contact, despite no European football at all.

It’s a bit of a blow for Rangers, if Stevie was indeed interested – after all, why wouldn’t he be in such an available and outstanding young midfielder, but it’s been softened a lot by the highly-praised arrival of English midfielder John Lundstram.

Veerman is seen as a Barry Ferguson type, a deep lying playmaker, or ‘regista’ as they say in Italy, but it seems like Italy is indeed the only place he wants to go and Rangers will have to move onto other targets.

Que sera.