Rangers transfer target lands 'high ceiling' verdict as update given on Josh Windass Ibrox return

The 21-year-old winger is expected to sign a long-term deal at Ibrox in the coming days after the two clubs agreed a fee for the young attacker, and will link up with Russell Martin’s squad at their St. George’s Park training camp shortly afterwards should everything go smoothly.

Having already brought in Max Aarons, Joe Rothwell, Manuel Fernandez, Thelo Aasgaard, Lyall Cameron and Nasser Djiga, the expected arrival of Gassama will take Rangers incomings to seven for the summer and the man who originally broke the story, Joe Crann from our sister publication The Star, believes he can be a big success at Ibrox.

"Russell Martin knows English football very well,” Crann told The Scotsman. “There’s that market that I’m sure he’ll be delving into a little bit more. I feel with Gassama that it would be a surprise if there’s not a single team in the EFL Championship that isn’t aware of his situation, and the fact that he was available for what he was available for - it has been rumoured at £2.5million, but that’ll likely be the most undisclosed fee ever.

“He’s a player with undoubted raw ability, and in my opinion a very high ceiling. Rangers are one of the clubs interested, and they’ve been quickest off the mark by the looks of it. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Rangers sell Gassama on for a pretty handsome profit in the next few years. He’s got a long way to go, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. He’s got a lot of growth in him, he’s very dynamic and direct. He'll have games where he's not really in it. That happens, he's a 21-year-old kid.

“Now having moved to a new club, so he'll have that bedding in period again. The Scottish game is very different to the English one. But I do think that he'll have a lot of fun. There's a lot of full-backs in Scotland that will not have a very nice time against him next season. There's room for growth, his decision making at times is a little bit off, but the shoots that was saw from him last year in terms of his growth...he really kicked on last season.

“It was a real breakout campaign. He gets bums off seats, which is something Wednesday had been lacking for quite a while. Because of his tricks, and his speed and the high potential he has, he was player fans were excited about. Rangers fans can have really good reason to be excited about this one.

"We've seen him on both wings, he can alternate. He's got a good strike on him, I'm sure people have watched his clips - he's scored some worldies for Wednesday. He's got a lot of strings to his bow. He's played in teams with a back three and a back four, he's played different formations. He's dropped back when he needs to - even though that's not his game. He's shown that he's got that little bit of versatility.

Crann also discussed his thoughts on a potential return to Rangers for Josh Windass, with the Star revealing this morning that the Ibrox giants are one of many clubs interested in bringing the attacking midfielder back to the club this summer.

Windass spent two seasons in Govan with Rangers after joining the club from in 2016 from Accrington Stanley, but departed the club to sign for Wigan Athletic after falling out of favour with then head coach Steven Gerrard. Now 31, he has been with the Owls for the last five seasons, scoring an impressive 53 goals in 180 appearances.

“We have a situation where players are handing in their notice because they've been paid late for two months,” explained Crann. “So they can go for free in a few weeks time. I'm not shocked at that Rangers would be interested in Josh Windass. Especially if he goes on a free, you'll find a lot worse signings than Josh. He's been maybe a bit maligned at Wednesday, he does sometimes rub people up the wrong the way - but's he's delivered. He's been one of the most important players in the Wednesday side for some time.

"I think Josh really enjoyed his time at Rangers. I seem to recall reading an article about leaving when he did and wishing he'd do a little bit more at Rangers in terms of the timeframe. Rangers are one many teams showing an interest in him, I would not be surprised if there's a pretty big queue of people lining up for Josh. But the size of Rangers, and that element of unfinished business - there is something about that which could give Rangers a bump up the queue if a few people make some actual offers.”

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