As much as we all wanted Lewis Ferguson to join Rangers, it has become abundantly clear that internally Rangers walked away from this deal weeks ago. It is understood Rangers made an approach to Bologna around one month ago to ask the lay of the land regarding Ferguson’s availability and cost.
Rangers explored the deal
It is understood the wage structure would not have been an issue. He is only on around £20,000 at Bologna. However, given his impressive performances at the World Cup, just like Rangers man Nico Raskin, his value rose from the previous £20M/£25M closer to £30M.
Bologna know that they have an asset on their hands, who is their captain as well. He is also of prime age and prime stock. He would not be coming cheap. Rangers learned of this a month ago and essentially moved on from this target.
The finances proved impossible
Essentially, it was not exactly clear to the wider ITKs, but Rangers had made their decision based on the logistics. As Ibrox Noise pointed out, Rangers wanted this deal to happen and even Ferguson himself was keen on it.
But the simple fact was his market value was too high. Unless Bologna were willing to cut his price by a clean half, and even then some, the logistics of the deal were impossible.
There was the notion of a part player exchange, but Connor Barron’s value is not an awful lot more than £5M. That would still require Rangers to spend an initial £25M on Ferguson.
Rangers moved on to other targets
That is something that, even with clauses and add ons, just is not manageable. It is very rare for a base price to be around £15M, but then to pay £10M in clauses and add ons, while also giving a valuable player as part of the deal as well.
As we said, it was just too difficult to make this one happen. Rangers cannot afford Ferguson on a pure financial basis. Owing to FFP and feasibility for the Scottish game, the deal was a non starter.
This was known internally at Ibrox many weeks ago. This is why Rangers have been so ardent in moving for Hjerto-Dahl and Dragojević. Rangers also made the move on Dan Neil and Cammy Devlin. Ross McCrorie was naturally the first signing.
So plenty of new midfielders have come in during the interim and will continue to do so. But alas, Lewis Ferguson will not be one of them, simply because the logistics and price are beyond Rangers’ capacity right now.