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Rangers hit with £10m reality check, Katic finds club and Cerny caught up in bonkers Wolfsburg drama – transfer bulletin

-Credit:SNS Group
-Credit:SNS Group


Nikola Katic is reportedly set for a return to the UK – but it won't be with Rangers despite the star's willingness to head back to Ibrox.

It initially promised to be a frantic window at Ibrox but Patrick Stewart's promise that there wouldn't be too many comings and goings seems to have come to pass – so far. There are just four days left of the window and Rafael Fernandes, on loan from Lille, is the only signing so far. As revealed by Record Sport, Katic was open to a move back to Ibrox to ease the centre-back selection crisis facing Clement – and his representative Craig Moore recently claimed he even put the move to the club, but received a reluctant response.

And now it seems it's off the table completely with TeamTalk reporting he's set to join Plymouth Argyle on loan from FC Zurich. It comes after they appointed Bosnian coach Miron Muslic as their new manager.

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Elsewhere, Cyriel Dessers could still be on the move before the deadline and pundit Stephen McGinn reckons he's a 'dilemma' for Clement to solve. He said on Go Radio: “I’m torn with Dessers. Obviously, he was 30 in December. We spoke about him not going to turn a profit – there’s not going to be money in him if he’s still a Rangers player in 18 months’ time. The gut feeling is, is Dessers ever going to be the number nine that helps Rangers topple Celtic domestically? I don’t think so.

“I don’t think the manager’s safe enough in his position to just say 'right, sell him and then we’ll look to the summer, we’ll reinvest the money, we’ll take our medicine until the summer.' He needs everyone pulling them along together to keep the money in the bank with the Rangers fans, they’re heading in the right direction, so I think it’s an absolute dilemma.

“The timing, it’s the window where everyone’s looking for a striker to score you goals, whether you’re fighting in a league across Europe, whether you’re fighting to stay in the league. You look at Rennes near the bottom of Ligue 1 in France and they’re hoping to spend £10million on Kyogo because they’re thinking he might be the guy that scores the goals to keep us in the top flight. So it’s a month where you can probably get more money than his market value’s worth but can Rangers afford to let that many goals go out of the building?”

And it's being reported in Turkey that Rangers are holding out for €5m (£4.2m) to sell Ridvan Yilmaz this month. The left-back has frequently been linked with a move away and there's been interest in his homeland from Besiktas, Galatasaray and others. But A Spor claim the Ibrox side are demanding a profit on the £3.4m they paid to sign him.

Meanwhile, Wolfsburg have no interest in recalling Rangers ace Vaclav Cerny this transfer window and have slapped a £6.75 million price tag on him....because of 35,000 job cuts at German car giants Volkswagen. The Czech international again underlined his importance to the Ibrox side this week with the crucial second goal as Rangers beat Union Saint Gilloise to reach the Last 16 of the Europa League following a 2-1 win.

Vaclav Cerny scores
Vaclav Cerny scores

Cerny has been a key player for Philippe Clement's side since signing from the Bundesliga side on a season-long loan in July. He still has two-and-a-half years left of his deal at Wolfsburg and admitted last month he wasn't sure if he had a future at the club.

However, the decision appears to have been taken out of his hands because of financial problems at Wolfsburg.

The club is owned and subsidised by Volkswagen, who have their headquarters in the Lower Saxony city. However, they recently announced plans to lay off around 35,000 of their workforce - a quarter of their entire total - to save an estimated £3.5 billion over the next five years.

Those cutbacks have filtered their way back to the football club, who will make severe cuts and trim their playing staff too. And reports in Germany have indicated Cerny will be up for sale for £6.75 million when he returns to Germany in the summer.

Wolfsburg sports director Sebastian Schindzielorz said: "We want to use resources more efficiently at VfL Wolfsburg. Our responsibility is to use the economic means we have sensibly, also in view of the situation at our parent company VW."

Cerny, 27, has scored 13 goals for Rangers in 31 starts in all competitions this season so far.