£1.5m ace admits Rangers offer left him feeling ‘really weird’ as he had ‘no plans to leave’

Earlier this month, Hamza Igamane explained why he opted to join Scottish Premiership club Rangers over a potentially more lucrative move to Qatar.

The striker admitted that he ‘took a long time to ponder’ out of dread of making a move he may later regret.

Fortunately for Rangers, Hamza Igamane’s chats with Philippe Clement convinced the striker that Ibrox was the place to be.

Despite the £1.7 million acquisition from RAC Rabat is not the only Rangers newbie who was divided between two possibilities after receiving an offer from Glasgow. Igamane chose between The Gers and Al-Gharafa, while Robin Propper had to choose between starting over in Scotland and playing in the Champions League at FC Twente.

The seasoned centre-back led Twente to third place in the Eredivisie last season, earning a spot in the Champions League qualification stages.

Clement persuaded Igamane to write, but Propper sought advice from former colleagues Vaclav Cerny and Cyriel Dessers before leaving his native country for the first time at the age of 30.

Robin Propper says he was divided over the Rangers transfer.

“That just goes to show that you can’t plan anything in your career,” Propper tells Tubantia. “It felt odd. I hadn’t planned to depart. I didn’t consider it at all.

“I was having a terrific time at Twente, and we had a fantastic bunch of ambitious students. I wanted to travel to Europe with Twente. “And then I was gone.”

“I would have wanted to divide myself in two, one half Twente and the other Rangers, but I had to make a decision. And, as pleasant as that was, it provided me with the opportunity to go on another amazing trip overseas.

“Ten years ago, I was sent away from Vitesse and now I could go to Rangers.”

According to the Daily Record, Propper considered leaving Enschede for an undisclosed ‘big European team’ a year ago.

Rangers took advantage of an arrangement he had with the Twente management. One that rewarded the skipper for his devotion while also allowing Propper to go at a bargain price of £1.5 million.

Propper outlines FC Twente condition that allowed cut-price Rangers transfer.

“The year before, there were already some chances to leave, but Twente did not want to lose me,” Propper says. “That was also Twente’s right. I did explain at the time that if I were to resign, my contract would have to have a specific condition.

“That gave me the feeling that I still had my career in my own hands and had not completely cornered myself.”

Twente struggled to adjust to life without Robin Propper at first. While Rangers were eliminated from the Champions League in the qualification round in contentious circumstances (Jefte’s red card against Dynamo Kiev remains a source of contention), Twente were defeated 5-3 on aggregate by Red Bull Salzburg without their most reliable center-back.

Propper has failed to impress in Scotland, with the pace and toughness of the local game proving to be a problem. Despite losing 2-1 to St Mirren on Boxing Day, Rangers’ backline maintained their longest streak of Premiership clean sheets since the Giovanni van Bronckhorst era.

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