Suddenly, out of nowhere, Rangers are at last being linked with some serious firepower after months of speculation over the front line, seeing Sam Lammers’ impending exit not to mention the ongoing injury issues with Danilo, and of course Nigerian Cyriel Dessers being the main striker of recent times.
And those men linked with a signature in Govan are of course Lawrence Shankland, with his name cropping up heavily again, while the new big link is Burnley striker Wout Weghorst, a name which has lit the fires of many a Rangers fan since the name was touted in our direction.
The Dutchman is likely to leave Turf Moor this summer having been relegated with former manager Vincent Kompany, and with his deal in England having just one season left he’s a massive target, literally, for a lot of teams to bring in.
He is of course a Dutch international and played a role at Euro 2024, not to mention his market value was previously a stonking £30M, but of course that was in his Wolfsburg days with a staggering 92 goals and assists in 144 appearances. His Burnley season a few years ago was nowhere near as good as this.
He has five appearances in the Champions League but no goals and let’s not forget his Man Utd days with 5 goals and assists in 31 outings for a truly appalling Man Utd side.
Indeed, his two Premier League spells have been with teams who were deeply struggling when he was there so it’s hard to be fair and measure him on that, albeit he wasn’t actually at Burnley when they went down – he was instead doing well in Germany with Hoffenheim – 11 goals and assists in 30.
His value these days has taken a hit based on his Utd and Burnley spell, which is potentially useful because it makes him a tonne more attainable – he could be got for less than £5M.
And then there’s Shankland – his name is always swirling around Rangers’ circles and it’s evident Rangers could really use one or two of these guys.
Weghorst is especially interesting being a giant striker, 6ft 5, and that’s the target man Rangers could definitely use.
184 goals and 60 assists in 488 appearances. He’s not half bad.
We’ll see if anything happens here in the coming weeks. Gotta sell first….