Rangers agree deal to sign “outstanding” star

The start of Glasgow Rangers’ season has now become clear, after a busy week of draws and fixture releases.

First, the Russell Martin era will begin with a Champions League second qualifying round tie against Panathinaikos, with the first leg at Ibrox coming up as soon as 22/23 July, before the pair reconvene at the Spyros Louis Olympic Stadium a week later.

Then, on Friday morning, it was confirmed that Rangers will travel to Fir Park to take on Motherwell in their Scottish Premiership opener on 2 August; a potentially tricky fixture.

Before all of that, the Gers will need to be busy in the transfer market, so are they about to get two signings over the line?

Rangers set to sign new defender

According to a report by Mark McAdam and Sahil Jaidka of Sky Sports News, Rangers ‘have agreed a deal’ with Bournemouth to sign defender Max Aarons, adding that it is a ‘straight loan’ with no option or obligation to buy included in the deal.

Aarons has fallen out of favour on the English South Coast, seeing just 130 minutes of action, across four appearances, for the Cherries last season, thereby spending the second half of the campaign on loan at Valencia, albeit this did not go to plan, playing a mere 208 minutes for los Murciélagos.

Nevertheless, still only 25 years old, the right-back was very highly thought of when he first broke through at Norwich City, almost joining Tottenham Hotspur for a huge £15m as a 19-year-old, so he still has plenty to offer, looking to reignite his career in Govan.

So, would he shine alongside another of Rangers’ summer arrivals?

How Max Aarons would link up with Kwame Poku

As previously noted by Darren Witcoop of Team Talk, Rangers are ‘set to sign’ winger Kwame Poku, who has been massively ‘in-demand’, after leaving Peterborough United as a free agent.

Poku, who is just 23 years old, scored 12 goals and registered 11 assists for Posh this season, helping them win back-to-back EFL Trophies at Wembley, hence why Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony asserted that he will “be a Premier League star in the future”, estimating that Poku will one day “cost £30 million”.

So, let’s assess his statistics this season.

As the table shows, despite limited minutes, Poku ranked highly for goals, assists, shots, and big chances created, while he is also a proficient dribbler.

If any Rangers supporters are skeptical about the fact he was playing at EFL League One level, well, Global Football Rankings believes that England’s third-tier is the 53rd strongest division in the world, just ten places below the Scottish Premiership.

Fintan O’Reilly of Total Football Analysis labels Poku a ‘thrilling playmaker’ who is ‘great in tight spaces’ and a ‘very intelligent passer’, while writer Kai Watson believes that the Ghanian international to be a “strong ball carrier”.

Thus, he will surely enjoy playing alongside Aarons given that, as noted by Tom Quartly of Breaking the Lines, he possesses breathtaking acceleration and a propensity to get forward and join his team’s attacks, while also able to ‘recover incredibly quickly if he makes a mistake’ defensively’.

His former manager at Norwich, Daniel Farke, described Aarons as “outstanding”, adding “I can’t praise him enough… maybe there is not that much more space to improve.”

Thus, in summary, both Aarons and Poku are very exciting talents, who both have the potential to get even better so, if they are deployed down the same flank, they could form an unstoppable duo as Martin’s new-look right-hand side.