As well as discussing LAFCs Jose Cifuentes, Rangers manager Michael Beale has also confirmed the club is talking to Feyenoord’s Danilo, but has admitted, in ‘Beale-speak’ that the deal to secure the Brazilian isn’t as close as that to nab Cifuentes, by stopping way short of the kind of rhetoric he expressed over the Ecuadorian.
Speaking after the Newcastle defeat, Beale was finally addressing some of the names Rangers have been linked to, and despite exalting the progress regarding Jose, admitted, effectively, Danilo is not as far along.
He said:
“Danilo is a player that we like, I think a lot of people like. He’s not the only forward we are talking to, but he’s the one that’s out there.”
This is infinitely less gushing than the progress he talked on the Cifuentes deal, by only admitting he liked the lad and that was that. He even actually played down this deal by suggesting Rangers are working on other opportunities and other strikers, when in reality Danilo is by far his top priority and where all attention is being focused for now.
So where is the situation?
Well, after Feyenoord rejected Rangers’ initial £3.5M offer, the sale of Antonio Colak to Parma raised a further £2.5M, and that was then added to the deal for Danilo, expanding it to £6M. But unfortunately for Beale and Rangers, that still fractionally falls short of Feyenoord’s £8M asking price, so for now, it’s stalled, and that’s why Beale is a lot less gushing about the deal.
Will it happen? If Rangers can add sweeteners on top to give strong addons/bonuses that will tempt Feyenoord, yes, it’s possible, but for now it’s just not quite there yet.
But Cifuentes is much much closer.
Hopefully both can be sorted soon.