Rangers got lucky escape with £4.7m striker; He could move to England despite 12 goals in 53 games
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To paraphrase the great Frank Sinatra; ‘Regrets, Rangers have had a few’ when it comes to the transfer market in recent times.
You could put together quite a fearsome list of talent the Glasgow outfit could and maybe should have signed in recent years, from Fiorentina’s £30 million forward Albert Gudmundsson to PSV Eindhoven playmaker Joey Veerman.
Andreas Skov Olsen was a Rangers target too when playing in Italy with Bologna. Now, the Club Brugge winger is set for a switch to Germany, VFL Wolfsburg paying around twice the fee the Gers could have got him for.
Rangers are unlikely to harbour the same regrets about Matija Frigan, however.
The Croatian striker was linked with a move to Ibrox during the summer of 2023. A summer he would end as a KVC Westerlo player, eventually swapping NK Rijeka for the Belgian side for a club-record fee of £4.7 million.
A fee, it’s fair to say, he hasn’t really justified.
Former Rangers target Matija Frigan now linked with Sunderland
After ending his debut season at Westerlo with just five goals in 31 games, Frigan’s tally this season stands at an improved but still underwhelming seven in 22.
Put those two campaigns together, and a striker who could have cost Rangers more than Cyriel Dessers and £3 million more than Hamza Igamane has hit the target a grand total of 12 times in 53 matches.
It may come as a surprise to learn, then, that one of Frigan’s 2023 suitors still appear to be interested. Not Rangers, of course, but Championship promotion-chasers Sunderland.
Sunderland reportedly submitted a £3.4 million bid for Frigan around 18 months ago, Rijeka holding out for more as Westerlo stumped up a historic fee.
Flash forward to early 2025, and with Black Cats hitman Aaron Connolly seemingly set for Millwall, Regis Le Bris’ fourth-placed Sunderland side need a replacement and it appears they may be willing to overlook Frigan’s difficult spell in Belgium.
Rangers are unlikely to be quite so forgiving.
A new centre-forward may be required at Ibrox soon enough – especially after Rangers opened talks to sell Cyriel Dessers last week – but a combination of poor returns and a hefty price-tag means Frigan is unlikely to feature particularly highly on any post-Dessers shortlist.
Not that Rangers are in any particular rush to shuffle their attacking pack before the month is out.
Both Hamza Igamane and Cyriel Dessers could stay at Rangers
CEO Patrick Stewart has ruled out selling Hamza Igamane – the Moroccan scored yet again as Rangers beat St Johnstone 3-1 on Sunday – while also playing down reports that Dessers could be on his way to Italy, France or even America.
"We don't want to sell Hamza in January," Stewart explains. "We want him to be here for the second part of the season, I'll be very clear on that.
"I think I would be told it was irresponsible if we sold a player. There's always a balance, but January is not typically a window in which those sorts of transactions take place.
"We're always, as a board, going to be looking at the long-term and striking a balance in the long-term. That's our duty, but Hamza's only came into the team and started scoring, and we want him to be here for the second part of the season, as I'm sure all the supporters do as well."
