Sport
‘Drastic’ Rangers deal collapse dismissed as ace set to fly into Glasgow – report
Rangers are looking to “rubber-stamp” a deal for Oscar Cortes this week as the Colombian gets set to fly into Glasgow, according to Football Scotland.
The outlet reported on their website on 29 January that the winger will be a Light Blues player before the January transfer window shuts, with only a “drastic misstep” in negotiations seen as capable of derailing the move now, which is “not expected to happen”.
The 20-year-old is due to join Rangers on a loan deal with an option to buy, dependent on how he performs for the club, after just half a season in France with Lens.
Cortes will join Fabio Silva and Mohamed Diomande as January Rangers recruits, with age-mate Jefte also expected, and inbound and outbound activity still planned after that.
In the bag?
There appears to be plenty of confidence in this deal getting done before the deadline on 1 February, but little can be taken as read in the dying days of the January window.
So the Gers will clearly need to make sure they don’t make one of the “drastic missteps” that would see the Cortes deal collapse.
Despite only signing him from Millonarios in his home country this summer Lens haven’t had a huge amount of use for him and are apparently ready to let him move on, with only four Ligue 1 appearances to his name.
But with Rangers deemed to be lacking width as they came out of the summer overhaul under Michael Beale, having seen Ryan Kent leave as his contract expired and then sold Fashion Sakala, and with regular wide starter Abdallah Sima ruled out for most of the season this month, there looks to be an opportunity at Ibrox over the second half of the season.
Clearly Nils Koppen and Philippe Clement must believe they can get more out of Cortes than his current side have if they are pushing to bring him in at this stage, in what is a crucial window.
The Belgian manager has already lifted the Viaplay Cup and staged a solid revival after what was a pretty turgid start to the season before he arrived.
Despite defeat in his first Old Firm derby on 30 December Rangers sit just five points behind Celtic with a game in hand, so the title race looks to be back on and the right signings at this stage could prove to be the difference.
