View: Player may now have weeks to save Rangers career as transfer news drops in last 24hrs
John Souttar may now have weeks to save Rangers career as Ben Godfrey transfer news emerges
Rangers are already eyeing up defensive reinforcements in the January transfer window which may come as some discouraging news for John Souttar.
Online news outlet 90min (8 November) shared on Wednesday the Light Blues want to sign out-of-favour Everton centre-back Ben Godfrey when the window re-opens.
It is believed that the Toffees are open to shifting the 25-year-old from their books this winter considering he has featured for just one minute in the Premier League this season.
However, Rangers will face stiff competition from the likes of Newcastle, Tottenham, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Burnley to get a deal done, although he wants to leave for more regular football.
Godfrey isn’t the only defensive name linked with a move to Ibrox in recent days, with Hammarby’s talented 21-year-old defender Nathaniel Adjei (The Sun, 6 November) also touted as a possible candidate to strengthen Philippe Clement’s back-line.
Rangers reportedly sent scouts to track Adjei last month, but his performances have alerted English clubs to his talent.
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It is believed that Hammarby are looking for at least £3.4million (€4m) for Adjei (FotbollDirekt, 7 November) on top of a sell-on clause of around 15-20% as the talented 21-year-old defender is clearly a man in demand ahead of the winter window.
Rangers will certainly have to get a move on if they are to firm up their interest in the Ghanaian centre-back and his progress at Hammarby is there for all to see.
Adjei has featured in 20 of their 29 Allsvenskan Swedish league games so far this season, winning a whopping 63% of his aerial duels, 66% of his ground duels, 64% of his total duels, averaging 1.1 tackles per game and only being dribbled past 0.2 times per game [SofaScore].
The Ghana Under-23 international is also under contract with Hammarby until 2026, so it may take a relative offer for the Light Blues to prize him away, but it’s clear that the club are already eyeing up defensive targets which may not be so welcoming for Souttar in regards to his Ibrox future.
The 27-year-old has started just seven games in all competitions this season and just two under new boss Philippe Clement and while those two starts bore impressive performances [SofaScore] for the bit-part player, the Belgian still hasn’t rewarded him with consistent starts under his stewardship, favouring Leon Balogun, Conor Goldson and Ben Davies.
Souttar hasn’t been without his fair share of injury niggles either and is currently out of action ahead of their next Europa League fixture against Sparta Prague which means time is running out for him to impress Clement until the January window.
The Belgian has been left frustrated by the constant injuries in his squad which means he may be reliant on those consistently available to him which really isn’t ideal for Souttar at all.
Once the defender returns to full fitness again, he will certainly just have a matter of weeks to prove to Clement that he is worthy of a spot in his long-term plans at Ibrox.
However, it isn’t looking good right now for Souttar with two names already on the Belgian’s list of targets to strengthen at centre-back.
