Exclusive:Rangers ready to rekindle interest in triple promotion winner - but face serious competition

Heavily linked with a move to Rangers during the winter transfer window alongside Black Cats teammate Romaine Mundle, the Ibrox side were gazumped by Ipswich Town in January, who offered a significantly higher loan fee to bring him to Portman Road before going on to seal automatic promotion to the English Premier League.

His second successive promotion, as captain Neil was a major figure in Sunderland’s victorious 2024/25 playoff campaign back to the EPL after an eight-year absence, beating Sheffield United 2-1 in the playoff final at Wembley.

However, after dropping down the pecking order following the arrival of Granit Xhaka and Noah Sadiki from Bayer Leverkusen and Union St-Gilloise, respectively, Neil was allowed to move to Ipswich on a temporary basis ahead of him becoming a free agent with his contract at the Stadium of Light expiring in the summer.

While he featured regularly for Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich side in the second half of the campaign, it remains unclear whether Ipswich are planning to make him a permanent offer following their promotion back to the top flight, with Neil reported to have interest from both Coventry City and Wolverhampton Wanderers earlier this month.

Rangers head coach Danny Rohl, who has presided over four consecutive defeats since the Scottish Premiership split, spoke of his desire to bring “more leaders” to Ibrox in the summer transfer window earlier this week, saying: “We need new leaders, more leaders for the dressing room, to set our standards that we want on the training pitch, in difficult moments in the game. I think this is crucial. This is a great opportunity to work on this. I think you can imagine, with Tav [James Tavernier leaving] we lose the captain and it means for us, this is a big signal as well.”

And it is understood that one of the names on Rohl’s wishlist is that of the 24-year-old Englishman. Neil, who made his senior debut aged just 16, has made over 200 appearances for Sunderland, with over a quarter of those coming as captain. A two-time promotion winner on Wearside, he featured 46 times as they won promotion from EFL League One in 2022 prior to last year’s playoff success in the second tier.

The German boss boosted his midfield options with the signing of Sturm Graz midfielder Tochi Chukwuani in the January transfer window, but has made it clear he needs more additions this summer if he is to restore Rangers to their former glories. However, the Light Blues will face strong competition for Neil, with the midfielder understood to be in serious demand, as clubs from Germany and Italy are almost vying to sign the Wearsiders on a Bosman free transfer when his contract expires this summer.

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