Rangers can ditch Desssers with move for £4m machine: View

Glasgow Rangers have now signed four players this summer as Philippe Clement begins to build a squad which he will be hoping returns to the top of Scottish football next season.

Having lost several players at the end of last month, plus the need to sell a few first-team stars to raise funds, it is clear his business is far from finished.

Could the Belgian manager be about to make a more concrete effort for someone who was linked with Rangers last year?

Rangers eye up move for 2023 transfer target

Petar Ratkov was linked with a move to Rangers in February 2023, as Michael Beale was keeping a close eye on the youngster.

That summer, however, he joined Red Bull Salzburg for a fee in the region of €4.5m (£4m), seemingly ending the Light Blues’ chances of ever signing him.

According to GIVEMESPORT however, the Ibrox side are eyeing up a potential move for the player this summer as they look to finally land a player who could have joined a year earlier.

Could Clement perhaps ruthlessly ditch Cyriel Dessers in the coming weeks to fund a move for Ratkov?

What Petar Ratkov could offer Rangers

In his maiden campaign for the Gers, Dessers scored 22 goals in 54 matches for the club, which, on the surface, appears to be a recent effort for his first season.

However, he did miss 27 big chances in the Premiership, while having a goal conversion rate of just 16%, which indicates that Clement clearly needs another striker or two this summer who could be far more clinical in the opposition penalty area.

A decent fee could be brought in for the Nigerian this summer and, considering he is approaching 30, it might not be a bad idea to cash in, which was backed up by GIVEMESPORT reporting earlier this summer that the attacker could be moved on to make way for new talent.

Ratkov, on the other hand, is still two months away from turning 21, indicating he has plenty of time to continue his development.

He may have only scored five goals during his debut season for Salzburg, but during the 2022/23 campaign, he scored 13 goals in 26 league matches for FK TSC, along with creating five big chances and succeeding with 47% of his dribble attempts.

Adding Ratkov to the squad would continue Clement’s philosophy of bringing in talented youngsters who have the potential to turn into players who might make the club a small fortune.

Football talent scout Jacek Kulig profiled Ratkov back in 2022 when he was first emerging into the public eye, stating that he was a “target man” while counting “pace, finishing and link-up play” as his main strengths.

All of these could work wonders in the current Rangers setup, especially with the way Clement likes to deploy his men in a 4-2-3-1 formation.

The 20-year-old hasn’t quite hit the heights expected of him since moving to Austria last summer, but this could open the door for the Light Blues to swoop in and reignite their interest in the centre-forward this summer.