Rangers

Alasdair Lamont
BBC Sport Scotland Commentator

Rangers' season could scarcely have got off to a worse start.

Not only have performances and results been poor, but injuries to three first-team players (Ben Godfrey, Youssef Chermiti and Tuur Rommens) have handed Derek McInnes a serious problem as he tries to navigate a challenging first few weeks in the job.

Clearly, Chermiti's ACL injury, which will likely rule him out for the majority, if not all, of the season, is the most damaging to Rangers' hopes of mounting a title bid.

That might force Rangers' hand in the transfer market unless Bojan Miovski is given an opportunity to prove his worth, having looked like a peripheral figure in the early weeks of the season.

They have already spent a considerable sum this window, with Couhaib Driouech looking like the latest addition, but McInnes has yet to find his best team and a system that allows them to flourish.

The 4-4-2 that worked so well for McInnes at Hearts last season has not worked particularly well so far for Rangers, and it will be interesting to see whether he persists with it or looks to tweak it to better suit the players at his disposal.

Some of the manager's selections have been questioned, as have some signings, and it's definitely fair to say, on the evidence of the opening three games, that a number of players have yet to prove their worth to the Rangers supporters.

Their next opportunity to do that comes on Thursday when they attempt to overturn a 2-1 deficit against Jagiellonia Bialystok to reach the Europa League play-off stage.

It already feels like a pivotal game in Rangers' season. Win and progress, and the mood around Ibrox will improve and a platform from which to build will be put in place.

Failure to do so will add to the negative vibe that has been created by the winless start to the season, while also striking a financial and reputational blow to the club.

McInnes knew what he was walking into when he accepted the task of becoming Rangers manager, so he knows what's at stake and he has to find a way of getting through this tie to engender a bit of positivity around Ibrox.

Image source, SNS

Sevilla have joined the race for Rangers midfielder Connor Barron, with West Ham also interested in the 23-year-old. Hayters, external

PSV Eindhoven winger Couhaib Driouech, 24, has passed his medical with only final details of a four-year contract to be agreed at Rangers. Mounir Boualin on X, external

Former manager Graeme Souness suggests Rangers should not lean too much into data analytics in their recruitment. Daily Record - subscription required, external

Image source, SNS

Mohamed Diomande has left Rangers to join Turkish club Corum for an undisclosed fee.

The Ivory Coast midfielder, 24, made 122 appearances for Rangers and scored 10 goals after joining from Nordsjaelland in January 2024, having played almost the same amount of games for the Danish club.

Diomande has eight senior international caps.

And Rangers said: "Everyone at Rangers thanks Mohamed for all his contributions and wishes him all the very best for the future."

Image source, SNS

Rangers manager Derek McInnes has addressed the media before Thursday's Europa League third qualifying round tie second leg against Jagiellonia Bialystok, who bring a 2-1 lead to Ibrox.

Here are the main points:

• McInnes says the club are "really disappointed" by the news of Youssef Chermiti's ACL injury. Chermiti will see a specialist for an operation in London next week.

• The manager is glad Rangers can "react" to Chermiti's absence and defensive shortages in the current transfer window.

• McInnes says the club will be "proactive with a number nine", are "playing with fire" with few available defenders and are "trying to bring wingers in".

• He confirms Rangers are closing in on PSV winger Couhaib Driouech: "I don't know exactly where he is right now. We've been linked with a lot of players and obviously that one's gained a bit of momentum and we are quite far down the line with that."

• Left-back Tuur Rommens faces up to eight weeks out - with McInnes saying "the scan wasn't great" - and joins Chermiti and Ben Godfrey on the sidelines.

• "We could all be doing with a win," says McInnes and hopes beating Jagiellonia would bring encouragement and confidence.

• McInnes urges his side to be less "safe" and show "more risk" in their play as they seek to progress to the Europa League play-off round, where Georgia's Iberia 1999 await.

Rangers fans, we asked for your thoughts on Youssef Chermiti's ACL injury, what now for the club, and what reinforcements are needed in his absence.

Here's a selection of what you said:

Graeme: Of course Chermiti's health should be the main priority and I hope he recovers, but this is classic Rangers. So many players have not been sold at peak value - Alfredo Morelos, Ryan Kent, Nicolas Raskin etc. - and once again poor strategy is literally costing the club money.

Ian: Poor guy. It's a terrible injury but could happen at any time. No point complaining about it. Gutted for the lad.

Sally: He is a young player, and his ACL will heal. It's unlikely he will be the same player and his value will drop dramatically in the transfer market. Rangers now need to find another striker fast.

Ian: Ryan Naderi and Bojan Miovski have to step up. It could not have happened at a worse time, with European ties already being difficult to get through without his loss.

Iain: I worry that we're spending ourselves into a black hole, £6m signings here, there and everywhere. Have the board assumed we would qualify for the Europa League and spent that money in advance? Have they assumed Chermiti and/or Raskin would move for a vast amount? Where is this money coming from?

James: Should have left him out of the team, and definitely should have sold him for £22m.

Alex: Rangers hierarchy blew the chance to cash in on Chermiti last week. They won't get that chance again. He's an average player who misses chances week in, week out. We could have bought three decent players with the transfer fee offered. Another failing in the boardroom!

Rangers are in talks with Brentford over a loan return for 20-year-old left-back Jayden Meghoma, while right-backs Kosta Nedeljkovic of Aston Villa and Hugo Siquet of Club Brugge remain targets. (Sky Sports)

Rangers left-back Tuur Rommens has suffered a groin strain and will be out for weeks instead of months. (The Herald)

Rangers remain in talks with Sheffield United over striker Ryan One, 20, after a loan approach was rejected. (Ben Jacobs on X)

Rangers had a bid for Hugo Siquet, 24, rejected by Club Bruges last week and the Belgian side have no plans to allow the player to leave this summer. (Daily Record)

Ibrox legend Barry Ferguson is convinced Derek McInnes is the right man for Rangers despite criticism after a modest start. (Daily Record)

Read the rest of Wednesday's gossip.

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Rangers will meet Georgian side Iberia 1999 in a Europa League play-off if they can get the better of Jagiellonia Bialystok at Ibrox on Thursday.

The Ibrox side trail 2-1 from a first leg defeat in Poland in the third round of qualifying.

Tbilisi-based Iberia 1999 needed extra-time at home to Larne, prevailing 2-1 after a 0-0 draw in Northern Ireland.

Should Rangers lose out to Bilaystok, they will drop into the Conference League play-off and face Czech side Jablonec or RFS of Latvia.

Kheredine Idessane
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

Image source, SNS

From my vantage point in the main stand at Ibrox, I winced as soon as I saw Youssef Chermiti crumple into a heap behind Raphael Sallinger's goal.

He immediately raised his arm, signalling he was in agony and that he needed urgent attention. It was instantly clear his game was over. What Rangers will now be hoping is his entire season isn't finished.

A cruciate ligament injury is by definition a serious one. The fact the club are already signalling he's out for a "significant period" tells its own story.

The timing could not have been worse and Derek McInnes will be starting to wonder if the early days of his tenure at Ibrox are jinxed. On the very day Rangers turned down a substantial bid - reported to be £22m - for Chermiti, he suffers an injury that will rule him out for months.

The board had a decision to make: look to bank a significant deal and rest him against Hibs or reject the "unsolicited" offer and play him. If they could turn back time...

Chairman Andrew Cavenagh says "three to five" new faces will still be recruited, and that will be music to McInnes' ears. He may now need a new striker, with Chermiti out.

Lawrence Shankland is still to get his Rangers career off the mark and Ryan Naderi doesn't look like the answer to the team's current lack of goals. Bojan Miovski is still on the books but is yet to play a competitive minute for his new manager.

McInnes started Chermiti in both of the past two matches but must now find the goals to see off Poland's Jagiellonia Bialystok in Europa League qualifying without him.

Image source, Getty Images

Rangers go into Thursday's second leg against Jagiellonia Bialystok off the back of a disappointing late defeat in the Scottish Premiership by Hibernian on Sunday.

Jagiellonia also lost in league action, going down 2-0 against Widzew Lodz in the Ekstraklasa.

Adrian Siemieniec's side conceded twice in three second-half minutes and are now sixth in the division after their first loss of the new league campaign.

There were five changes to the side that beat Rangers 2-1 last week.

Should Rangers overturn their 2-1 deficit at Ibrox on Thursday, Derek McInnes' side will either face either Northern Irish champions Larne or Iberia Tbilisi of Georgia for a place in the Europa League proper.

Neither of those two sides were in league action last weekend, allowing them more time to prepare for their European quest.

However, should Rangers drop into Conference League qualifying, they will play either Jablonec of Czech Republic or RFS of Latvia.

Jablonec won 1-0 against Slovacko on Sunday in a game that featured three red cards, while RFS trounced Grobina 6-1 to maintain their one-point lead at the top of their domestic league.

Rangers have confirmed striker Youssef Chermiti sustained an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in Sunday's loss to Hibs and will be out long term.

Chermiti's injury occurred just hours after manager Derek McInnes said Rangers had rejected a bid for the forward as it did not meet the club's valuation.

Rangers fans, what do you make of this injury news?

Where does his lengthy absence leave the side? Is at least one more addition in that position now a must between now and the end of the window?

Have your say here.

Jamie Currie
Fan writer

The start of the season has been atrocious, to be brutally honest.

There have been many factors for this. Firstly, we are lacking quality all over the pitch. We currently have a squad of squad players, so we haven't added starters.

Secondly, Derek McInnes hasn't helped himself.

We've had three baffling team selections in the opening three games. Striker Ryan Naderi was deployed wide right at Dundee Utd, Dujon Sterling played centre-back in Poland - when we had Olwethu Makhanya on the bench - and our new £4m central midfielder Vanja Dragojevic was right-back on Sunday.

That's before you talk about the VAR getting involved in a nothing incident.

Youssef Chermiti's injury is a worry - we cannot rely on Lawrence Shankland and Naderi for the rest of the season.

McInnes making Shankland the captain was another issue; he has not proved himself a Rangers player, never mind a captain. He's got a lot to prove.

Going out of the Europa League on Thursday to Jagiellonia Białystok is unthinkable, but it's not unlikely at this point.

What I thought we were getting in a McInnes team was solid at the back and practical. But we have none of that. We are wide open and look poorly coached.

There are so many issues and I don't think throwing money at it constantly will fix these issues.

But we need to see improvement quickly.

Image source, Getty Images

Rangers have agreed a £6.5m deal to sign PSV Eindhoven winger Couhaib Driouech, 24. (Anthony Joseph, external)

Meanwhile, Rangers are pushing to sign James Penrice, 27, and have submitted a loan offer with purchase option, but AEK Athens want a permanent transfer for the former Hearts full-back. (Barry Anderson, external)

And Belgium and Club Brugge right-back Hugo Siquet, 24, is attracting interest from Rangers. (Foot Mercato - in French, external)

Rangers midfielder Mohamed Diomande, 24, has arrived in Istanbul for a medical before his proposed move to Turkey's Corum. (Inside Futbol, external)

Thursday's Scottish gossip

Watch the Sportscene panel discuss Rangers' build-up play after they suffered a late defeat at home to Hibernian.

Chris McLaughlin
Scotland sports news correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Rangers chief executive Jim Gillespie believes Derek McInnes is a "Jurgen Klopp style manager".

McInnes was appointed as Rangers head coach this summer following the departure of Danny Rohl, who left the Glasgow club to take over at Austrian side RB Salzburg.

Klopp, who has been named head coach of the German national team, won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and English League cup during his time with Liverpool.

And Gillespie believes McInnes is of a similar style to the German boss.

At a shareholder meeting in Glasgow, Gillespie was asked about the appointment of McInnes, who fell just short of winning the title with Heart of Midlothian last season.

"You can go for a Pep [Guardiola] style manager or a [Jurgen] Klopp style manager - we wanted a Klopp-style manager who plays on the front foot," Gillespie said.

"I think in terms of Rangers' game model and what fans' expectations are, we wanted a Klopp-type manager who was on the front foot and played aggressive football and created chances and score goals.

"Derek McInnes is a Klopp-style manager. Underneath that is the structure that he wants to play, the conversations about how successful he has been.

"He is just off the back of a great season at Hearts, and the character the Hearts team showed and some of the characteristics that he has, his Scottish experience – he has managed over 500 games I think."

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Rangers striker Lawrence Shankland has seen enough from his side to believe they are heading in the right direction.

The former Hearts striker joined the Glasgow club earlier this summer, along with manager Derek McInnes as the Ibrox side continue to search for their first win under the new boss.

Rangers drew 1-1 with Dundee United in their first league game of the new season last week, before losing 2-1 to Jagiellonia Bialystok in the first leg of the Europa League qualifier.

Sunday's defeat to Hibernian became the third game in a row McInnes' side have failed to win but Shankland sees no cause for concern yet.

"I think the biggest thing that went wrong is we never won," Shankland said of Sunday's performance against Hibs.

"Performance-wise, the amount of chances we created, the amount cleared off the line, we hit the bar, there was enough moments there for us to take encouragement in terms of we're trying to do the right thing to win the game.

"The biggest thing, obviously, you are judged here on results, I totally understand that.

"But if you look to the goals and you looked at what happened in the game, the amount of moments we had, as I said, I think there was only one team that looked like they were actually going to win it. So that's the frustrating part."

Rangers are now five points behind rivals Celtic at the top of the table and supporters, frustrated by the performance, booed at full-time.

"I understand it," Shankland, a boyhood Rangers fan, added.

"I've been a fan, I've been in stands before and I understand people wanting you to score every single time you've got the ball. But we understand that it's not possible.

"We need to try and work at it, especially when you come up against a low block. I know people will say this is the same old story, but it's the truth. There were enough moments that I feel we were doing the right thing to try and win the game.

"It's maybe just a wee bit of luck at the minute. I take encouragement for what I've seen in terms of the amount of chances we create around the box.

"In weeks to come, we can take those chances and the results will be better."

Rangers fans, we asked for your views after Sunday's Scottish Premiership defeat to Hibs.

Here's what some of you said:

Tony: Not good enough, five points behind our rivals already. We look as bad as last season. I know it's early doors but we need massive improvement from the next game or I can't see the manager being here for long, hopefully I'm wrong though.

Stuart: What poor start. I thought when we got Derek McInnes we'd be great, especially with signing Lawrence Shankland but I've seen nothing. He better hurry up as his time is going to be running short. We're already five points behind Celtic, pathetic.

David: When are Rangers going to learn you can't gut a team every year. Last year's team were (briefly) at the top of the Premiership, even after the disastrous start. Signing two or three new players of high value would have been better than gutting the team again. Plus, we need to bring some youth through. I fear this will be a repeat of last season - a poor start then the team clicks after three or four months but still too late to win the league. I hope I'm wrong.

David M: We'll hear criticism and it is understandable but we also have to ask how we can have had so many managers and dozens of player changes in the last four or five seasons yet the same failings continue. There has to be a deep rooted issue that isn't being addressed. Maybe the incessant demands and expectations are affecting the players' confidence, each new group is expected to be the one that turns things around.

Louise: New faces, same problems. All our leaders have been sold, more mediocrity brought in and more poor play. I know it's only been two games but the alarm bells are already ringing and it looks like another promise of a rebuild is just another average team who aren't up to the challenge. I would really like for Rangers to kick on and prove me wrong, but I fear Derek McInnes is just going to be another in a long line of managers that have been failed by poor recruitment.

Robert: Seen this movie before. Absolutely no creativity, no-one taking responsibility for creating chances and a complete lack of pace. Rangers hardly look like scoring and there's too much playing backwards and sideways. I think I've written this many times before about Rangers in recent seasons but the defending is truly awful.

Image source, SNS

Turkish Super Lig club Corum are discussing the final details with Rangers for the transfer of Mohamed Diomande, with the 24-year-old midfielder expected in Istanbul on Monday for a medical and contract talks. (Ertan Suzgun on X, external)

Corum are closing in on a move to sign Rangers midfielder Mohamed Diomande for a fee of around £4.5m. (Rangers Review, external)

Çorum have made an official offer of £4.8m to Rangers for Mohamed Diomande. (Yagis Sabuncuoglu on X, external)

The bid rejected by Rangers for striker Youssef Chermiti was from Galatasaray for £22m, which would have been a club record sale. (Rangers Review, external)

Frosinone's asking price of £17.1m for Farès Ghedjemis has coolled the interest of quite a few clubs, including Rangers, in the 23-year-old winger. (Foot Mercato, external)

Rangers are exploring a deal for 20-year-old Aston Villa right-back Kosta Nedeljkovic. (Daily Record, external)

Rangers are considering taking Serbia right-back Kosta Nedeljkovic from Aston Villa on a season-long loan. (The Herald, external)

PSV Eindhoven head coach Peter Bosz insists Rangers transfer target Couhaib Driouech was left out of their Eredivisie opener against Fortuna Sittard due to a lack of fitness as the Ibrox club look to strike a £7m deal. (Daily Record, external)

After having a £6m bid rejected, Rangers remain in talks with PSV Eindhoven over a deal for 24-year-old winger Couhaib Driouech, with Burnley and Celta Vigo also interested. (Sky Sports, external)

Read the rest of Monday's Scottish gossip.