Malik Tillman is near-certain not to return to Rangers on any basis, after two Premier League sides in Brighton and Brentford allegedly made overtures about signing the American international, with Bayern Munich making it reportedly clear that they now seek significantly more than the £5M option Rangers had on the deal.
There was a lot of misinformation about Tillman’s loan contract at Ibrox, and it’s now clear the £5M option to buy was purely that – optional, for both Rangers AND the German champions, and Rangers didn’t have first refusal on it.
It appears the loan contract for the American included that option to buy, and Rangers, well, Michael Beale, was hoping that the deal could be done at the end, but if the lad ‘impressed’ (debatable) then other sides would be quite validly interested and Munich held all the cards.
And now the Bees and the Seasiders are looking at the attacker with interest, and can certainly afford a lot more than the £5M Rangers’ limit was at.
It’s one Rangers fans are generally happy with – most supporters have moved on from the Munich kid, who got good stats against the lesser Scottish Premiership sides but was seen to struggle in bigger matches, aside his impressive Champions League qualifiers v Union Saint and PSV.
As such, there’s no denying Rangers have plenty of quality options in attacking midfield anyway, with recovering Ianis Hagi, fringe man Alex Lowry, returning Tom Lawrence we hope and of course Todd Cantwell and new signing Kieran Dowell.
Tillman isn’t needed on any level, with Cantwell making Rangers fans pretty much forget the German-born lad was even at Ibrox.
As it stands, two Premier League sides are taking interest in him, supposedly, although it is likely it is agent talk to drum up interest in him.
Tillman’s main objective is to get into the Bayern team, but he’s clearly well short of that level, and Thomas Tuchel probably isn’t overly interested in him.
If he can get a move to another top five league side, he’ll be laughing.
But it is extremely unlikely to be to Rangers.