Rangers now poised to complete “superb” deal after Miovski

Rangers’ centre-forward options at Ibrox are set to undergo a mass overhaul during the final few days of this transfer window.

On Friday, Hamza Igamane’s departure was made official, joining Ligue 1 side LOSC Lille for £10.4m, leaving under a bit of a black cloud, having refused to come off the bench during last Sunday’s 1-1 draw with St Mirren, at least according to under-fire manager Russell Martin.

Meantime, Cyriel Dessers has been heavily linked with a move away all throughout the summer, with AEK Athens the club who’ve shown the strongest interest.

For now, the Nigerian remains a Rangers player, but he is a doubt ahead of Sunday’s Old Firm derby at Ibrox, so Danilo is expected to lead the line against Celtic.

However, ahead of that game, could the Light Blues sign not one but two new centre-forwards?

Rangers’ search for new strikers

As has been widely reported, Rangers are set to sign striker Bojan Miovski from Girona for around £2.6m, potentially rising to £4.2m.

The North Macedonian international underwent a medical in France on Friday, with the Gers attempting to get the paperwork finalised in time so that he would be eligible to feature in Sunday’s Glasgow derby.

Miovski will be a familiar face to all Scottish football fans, having scored 44 goals across two seasons at Aberdeen, four of which came against Rangers, only on target against Livingston more frequently, but he is now tasked with scoring goals in light blue.

However, Miovski is not the only centre-forward on his way to Glasgow’s south side.

That’s because, as reported by Mike McGrath of The Telegraph, Rangers are in the “final stages of completing a deal” to sign Everton striker Youssef Chermiti, adding that a deal is now virtually agreed.

The Portuguese under-21 international will move to Ibrox on a season-long loan, seemingly set to swap Merseyside for Glasgow imminently.

What Youssef Chermiti will bring to Rangers

After coming through Sporting CP’s academy, Chermiti made just 22 appearances for the Lions’ first team, scoring three goals, but this was enough to convince Everton to pay £15m to secure his signature.

However, this move has not paid off so far, with the striker making just 24 appearances for the Toffees, of which only two have been starts, these coming against Brentford in the Premier League in April 2024, and at Doncaster in the EFL Cup soon after his arrival, hooked at half time in Yorkshire with the side 1-0 down.

This might explain why Chermiti is yet to score a single goal for the Blues, having seen just 295 minutes on the field since moving to Merseyside over two years ago.

Thus, he is certainly looking to relaunch his career north of the border.

Analyst Kai Watson labels Chermiti a “proper big man” centre-forward, adding that, despite being 192 cms (6 ft 4 in), he is a “good dribbler”, while Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout asserts that he is a “superb prospect”

Given his lack of game time at Goodison, this signing is certainly a risk, mitigated by the fact it’s only a loan move, but could the Portuguese youngster replicate the success of Rangers’ best loan signing of recent times?

Ryan Kent also arrived at Ibrox on loan from Merseyside, joining from Liverpool in 2018, so successful during that season that they made him the club’s most-expensive signing of modern times, paying £7.5m to make the move permanent.

Before this however, as the table below documents, Kent had shown little sign that he was going to become a high-level performer.

As the table documents, before arriving at Rangers, in 82 senior appearances, Kent had scored just four goals and registered only six assists, ultimately accumulating 33 goals and 56 assists during his time at Ibrox.

Thus, there is certainly a recent precedent for a player arriving in Glasgow on loan and exploding in front of goal, something Chermiti will be hoping to replicate.