Rangers transfer news as Leeds United attacker Joe Gelhardt wanted at Ibrox in January
The Daily Mail reports that Rangers are interested in acquiring Joe Gelhardt, a forward for Leeds United, during the January transfer window.
On January 8, Simon Jones revealed in the paper’s Transfer Confidential that Celtic, an Old Firm rival, is also interested in the out-of-favour attacker.
Although Philippe Clement has already added Fabio Silva to his strike force on loan from Wolves this month, it was widely anticipated that he would look to further bolster his group.
Danilo is out injured long-term and both Sam Lammers and Cyriel Dessers have struggled since their summer arrivals, while Kemar Roofe can’t stay fit.
Revival
Two years ago, Gelhardt seemed ready to be Elland Road’s next big thing, but after dropping down the ranks, his development has stalled.
This season, the 21-year-old has played in just six league games in the English Championship and has only played a little amount of minutes in the division since August.
So he certainly looks like he needs a move to get some regular game time, and with Rangers in need of attacking reinforcements a loan move would make a lot of sense on one hand.
But, as with Silva, he is not an out-and-out number nine and hasn’t been prolific in front of goal during his young career so far, with only five senior goals to his name.
Although he is undoubtedly talented and, following a tough season and a half, a shot at Ibrox may be just what he needs, he won’t likely be the double-digit goal scorer this team appears to require.
It may be assumed that he is seen as a support option for Dessers given that his loan move to Sunderland last season proved difficult following the immediate absence of Ross Stewart, who he was supposed to assist in attack.
Rangers will probably need to be inventive this month to strengthen the attack since Hearts captain Lawrence Shank land is receiving so much attention that anyone without the same track record of success scoring goals would be viewed as an inappropriate substitute.
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