£4.5M Sands to Rangers story is mischief-making

There’s been some mischief-making by the Scottish press today over James Sands, the solid enough but deeply underwhelming defensive midfielder who arrived in January.

His tidy but forgettable play has been such a surreal addition to the club that rarely have we witnessed fans welcoming him either into the XI when seeing him make a rare start, or onto the pitch as a late sub.

This is nothing against the boy, he’s a decent fellow and Rangers is his first gig outside of his native USA, and for a young man as a fish out of water he’s done well to handle the big world of European football as well as the hatchet men of Scottish football.

But the headlines informing us, or heavily hinting anyway, that Rangers are to pay £4.5M to make his loan deal permanent are literally clickbait seeking the traffic.

Some website got an ‘MLS insider’ to tell the world what the alleged purchase price actually is, and said chap claimed Rangers will take it up.

Without a hint of actually knowing either fact for sure.

We at Ibrox Noise won’t pretend to be ITK on this one, unlike this American soccer fellow, but what we do know is that his performances thus far haven’t entirely merited a permanent purchase, and certainly not at the sum of £4.5M.

He’s here for sure until the end of the season – if he ups his game and becomes a major part of Giovanni’s Rangers, maybe, but right now it’s literal piffle.

As usual.