Rangers flop Matt Crooks set for England transfer as Josh Windass speaks out on Brazil switch

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In a week in which Josh Windass has been tipped with swapping Sheffield Wednesday for Santos, a player who arrived alongside him at Rangers back in 2016 also appears to be on the move.

Success stories were few and far between during the madcap reign of Pedro Caixinha at Ibrox.

But when the Portuguese tactician was not arguing with supporters while knee-deep in shrubbery, when he wasn’t proclaiming Ross McCrorie one of the greatest prospects in Scottish football history, his management of Josh Windass was certainly one thing Caixinha got right.

Windass scored 18 goals in his second and final season at Rangers. A tally he is yet to beat, seven years on.

But with Josh Windass in phenomenal form at Sheffield Wednesday – he channelled his inner-David Beckham with a sumptuous lob from inside his own half recently – the one-time Accrington Stanley starlet could soon take the path less travelled from the Steel City to Vila Belmiro.

Josh Windass in Brazil shock as ex-Rangers teammate Matt Crooks nears England return

Pedro Caixinha already has Alfredo Morelos at his disposal. Now, as the former Rangers boss looks to get the old blue-coloured band back together in Brazil, Windass has been offered the opportunity to cross the Atlantic himself.

"It came as a surprise this morning to be honest when my agent called me,” Windass told talkSPORT when quizzed about Santos’ interest. “It came as a surprise this morning because I've not spoken to or seen Pedro in a long time.

"But it is what it is. When you're in form, this sort of stuff happens."

Windass joined Rangers nearly a decade ago as part of a double deal involving his one-time Accrington Stanley teammate Matt Crooks.

Now, Crooks himself could be on the move this month. Albeit his destination will be a lot less glamorous. Less the Copacabana, more Kingson-upon-Hull.

According to the Hull Daily Mail, Crooks underwent a medical with Championship outfit Hull City on Monday. Having spent the last eleven months in America with Real Salt Lake, the now-30-year-old midfielder is returning to England to become Ruben Selles’ first signing on Humberside.

Ibrox misfit Crooks joining Hull City in Championship relegation battle

Crooks’ Rangers spell, it’s fair to say, was a lot less memorable than Windass’.

Three first-team appearances was all he had to show from his time north of the border, joining Northampton Town only a few months after his arrival. Now 30, the well-travelled, Leeds-born giant has still put together a CV to be proud off in the years since, however.

In fact – a regular scorer from midfield at Middlesbrough until he departed for a fresh challenge in the MLS – there is certainly an argument that Crooks had achieved more away from Rangers than Widnass did until the Sheffield Wednesday forward exploded into life this season.

Crooks will join a Hull City side mired in the relegation zone. The Tigers have lost the roar of the early Acun Ilicali days, a series of misjudged decisions from their Turkish owner seeing a team with play-off ambitions slip into a survival battle.

Crooks’ experience, physicality and nose for goal should, at least, help keep the proverbial wolf from the door.