Rangers could sign “sensational” replacement for Ianis Hagi at Ibrox

Fair to say, it’s been a mixed season for Rangers so far.

It started badly off the park for the Ibrox side, with the Gers strangely forced to play four home matches at Hampden due to “a delay in a materials shipment from Asia” meaning their planned renovations of the Copland Stand overran, impacting the start of the season.

During this period, Philippe Clement’s team were ignominiously dumped out of Champions League qualifying by Dynamo Kyiv, albeit the Light Blues have shone back in their favourite competition, the Europa League, currently sat eighth in the league phase table, enjoying victories over Malmö, Steaua București and, most recently, Nice by the French Riviera, beaten only once so far.

Last Thursday, Rangers welcomed Tottenham Hotspur to Ibrox, a ground Ange Postecoglou obviously wasn’t expecting to receive a warm welcome back at back in Glasgow, before another glamour tie against Manchester United at Old Trafford to come next month.

However, domestically, having lost three Scottish Premiership games already, Rangers are actually down in third, two points below Aberdeen and a whopping 11 adrift league-leaders Celtic, ahead of Sunday’s Old Firm League Cup Final that no Rangers support is looking forward to.

So, with ground to make up in the second half of the season, could Rangers dip into the January transfer market?

Assessing Rangers’ attacking options

So far this season, Clement has given minutes to ten different senior attacking midfielders, wingers and strikers, still searching for the best formula.

Václav Černý, on loan from Wolfsburg, has been Rangers’ most impressive attacking player so far this season, although Hamza Igamane has somewhat come out of nowhere to shine in recent weeks, bagging a brace away to Nice, also on target during the last two Premiership matches, comfortable victories over Kilmarnock at Ibrox and Ross County in the Highlands on Sunday.

Will the Moroccan continue his scoring spree? Who knows.

In terms of number tens, Ianis Hagi was sensational when he first arrived from Genk in 2020 but has not been the same player since suffering a ruptured ACL against Stirling Albion in January 2022, requiring surgery.

The Romanian has endured persistent injury issues ever since and, after spending last season on loan at Alavés, he made his first Rangers appearance for 404 days in early October, but marked the occasion by being sent off half an hour after his introduction, dismissed by referee David Dickinson following VAR review.

Thus, Clement will surely want to dip into the attacking-midfielder market in January, so could a highly-rated Englishman, who might just be exactly what they’re looking for, become available?

Rangers could sign Ianis Hagi replacement

As reported by Pete O’Rourke for Football Insider earlier this week, Chelsea midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall will be available for transfer when the January window opens on New Year’s Day.

The 26-year-old had been with Leicester City since the age of eight, but joined Chelsea for a reported fee of £30m last summer, easing the Foxes’ PSR concerns and reuniting with manager Enzo Maresca, who himself had swapped Filbert Way for Stamford Bridge a few weeks earlier.

However, Dewsbury-Hall has been used infrequently so far, making just 13 appearances, totalling 684 minutes, for the Blues to date, appearing for a miserly 55 minutes in the Premier League, very much part of the B-team, starting both EFL Cup ties as well as five of six UEFA Conference League fixtures, introduced at half time of the other.

He scored his first, and so far only, goal for Chelsea as the Blues smashed Gent 4-2 back in September.

However, having not even been amongst the substitutes for six of Chelsea’s last ten Premier League fixtures, Dewsbury-Hall could be on the move again in January.

In that aforementioned Football Insider article, O’Rourke claims Rangers have “expressed an initial interest” in Dewsbury-Hall, while conceding that the Scottish club do not have the finances to finalise a permanent deal.

Thus, could the Gers agree a loan deal, reminiscent of Aaron Ramsey’s shock move to the Glasgow giants from Juventus in January 2022?

Current Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers once described Dewsbury-Hall as “sensational” when the pair were together in the East Midlands, but the midfielder could surface on the opposite side of the Glasgow divide, potentially adding the creative spark that Rangers desperately lack.

Having scored 12 goals and registered 15 assists in the English Championship last term, he could be just what the doctor ordered in that regard.