Rangers open talks to sign RB Salzburg target who scored two goals against Liverpool
Derek McInnes finally has the winger he has been chasing all summer, but there is a strong sense inside Ibrox that this rebuild is far from finished. Rangers have completed the signing of Daisuke Yokota from Hannover in a deal worth £3.5million, and the Japanese attacker wasted no time in linking up with his new teammates, travelling straight to Poland to join the squad ahead of their Europa League qualifying assignment against Jagiellonia Bialystok. It is a move that gives McInnes something he has lacked in his early months in charge: a genuine left-footed threat who can operate from the right flank and cut inside onto his stronger foot, stretching defences in a way that has been notably absent from the Rangers attack in recent seasons.
Yokota’s arrival was confirmed as the ninth signing of a hugely active summer at Ibrox, one that has seen the Gers board back their new manager heavily as he attempts to reshape a squad that limped through last season without silverware. It has been a summer of transformation rather than tinkering, and the sheer volume of incomings tells its own story about how far McInnes felt the group needed to be rebuilt. The Japanese international’s journey to Glasgow has been anything but conventional, and his career path offers an intriguing insight into the type of player Rangers have brought in. He began his senior career in German lower-league football with Carl Zeiss Jena II, before really cutting his teeth in Latvia with Valmiera FC, where he racked up 61 appearances, eight goals and 12 assists, numbers that first alerted scouts to his potential as an attacking outlet. From there he moved to Poland’s Górnik Zabrze, contributing nine goals and three assists in 32 games, before a switch to Belgium with KAA Gent, where injuries and squad rotation limited him to 13 appearances, though he still managed a goal and three assists in that spell.
It was a loan move to Kaiserslautern that really began to accelerate his development, with Yokota contributing four goals and three assists in 26 appearances in the German second tier, catching the eye sufficiently to earn a permanent move to Hannover 96, initially on loan before the switch was made permanent. In total across his career to date, Yokota has racked up 171 appearances, 29 goals and 25 assists, a body of work that speaks to a player who has learned his trade across several European leagues and multiple different footballing cultures. That well-travelled résumé is exactly the kind of profile McInnes and his recruitment team have prioritised this summer: players with proven output at a good level who arrive hungry to prove themselves at a bigger club, rather than gambles on reputation alone.
Yokota’s arrival slots into a summer rebuild that has touched almost every area of the pitch. Lawrence Shankland has already given the forward line a focal point it was crying out for, a proven goalscorer at Scottish Premiership level who instantly raises the ceiling of what Rangers can do in the final third. In midfield, the additions of Cammy Devlin, Dan Neil and Ross McCrorie have given McInnes far greater competition and balance through the middle of the park, three players with contrasting attributes but a shared willingness to press, cover ground and dictate tempo. At the back, Ben Godfrey and Olwethu Makhanya have arrived to add depth and physicality to a defence that too often looked short of options last term. Taken together, it amounts to one of the most sweeping squad overhauls Ibrox has seen in years, and it underlines just how much trust the Rangers hierarchy has placed in their manager to get this rebuild right first time.
And yet, for all that incoming business, McInnes has made no secret of the fact that he still wants more pace, more unpredictability and more genuine one-on-one threat in the wide areas. It is an area of the pitch that has troubled Rangers for a while now, with a lack of consistent width and directness in behind opposition full-backs often cited as one of the reasons games have been ground out rather than won comfortably. Mikey Moore’s loan spell at Ibrox has now come to an end, with the young Tottenham winger returning to his parent club before being shipped out again, this time to Köln, closing the door on any prospect of an extended stay in Scotland. Elsewhere, Vaclav Cerny, a player who knows Ibrox well from his previous loan spell there, has been strongly linked with a return, but the finances involved in getting a deal for the Wolfsburg winger over the line have proven complicated, and there is no guarantee that a move will materialise before the window shuts.
Yokota, then, can be seen as addressing one half of that problem, giving Rangers a right-sided option who threatens defenders by coming inside. But McInnes and his recruitment staff appear equally determined to solve the other side of the equation too, and that is where PSV Eindhoven winger Couhaib Driouech enters the picture as arguably the most exciting name on Rangers’ current shortlist. Unlike Yokota, Driouech is right-footed by trade but has made his home on the left side of attack, a role in which he has become accustomed to driving in behind defenders, using his searing pace to beat markers before either cutting inside or accelerating to the byline to whip in crosses. At 24 years of age, he represents precisely the kind of profile McInnes has been chasing all summer: quick, direct, positive in possession and genuinely capable of unsettling even the most well-drilled backlines.
Driouech’s development as a footballer is a story worth telling in full, because it explains a great deal about why he has become such an attractive target for a club like Rangers at this stage of his career. He came through the youth ranks at Heerenveen before really beginning to flourish once he moved to Excelsior, a club whose fluctuating fortunes between the Eredivisie and the second tier of Dutch football actually proved to be something of a blessing in disguise for his development. Rather than sitting on the periphery of a bigger club’s academy system, Driouech was thrown into competitive, high-stakes senior football at a young age, experiencing both the euphoria of promotion battles and the grind of relegation scraps. That kind of pressure-cooker environment tends to accelerate a young player’s education far more effectively than comfortable academy football ever could, and it is widely regarded as the period in which his searing pace truly became a weapon that opposition defenders had to specifically plan for.
His performances at Excelsior did not go unnoticed. PSV moved to sign him in 2024 for a fee in the region of £3 million, seeing off interest from a trio of clubs that included Rangers themselves, along with Sevilla in Spain and Sporting Lisbon in Portugal. It is a detail that adds an extra layer of intrigue to the current negotiations, given that Rangers were among the suitors who missed out on him first time around. Driouech has since spoken about that decision, explaining that it was ultimately PSV’s personal, direct approach and the clarity of their vision for him as a player that persuaded him to remain in the Netherlands rather than test himself in a new country straight away. It is easy to see, in hindsight, why that appealed to a player still developing his game: PSV offered continuity of league, language proximity to what he already knew, and a pathway into one of European football’s more progressive footballing environments.
His time in Eindhoven has not been without its complications, however. His first season at the club was disrupted by an ankle injury that kept him sidelined for 55 days, a frustrating spell for a player who had joined specifically to kick on and establish himself at a higher level. Beyond the injury, Driouech also found himself contending with fierce competition for attacking places in a PSV squad that has been packed with talent throughout his time there, and as a result a significant proportion of his early football in Eindhoven came from the substitutes’ bench rather than as a guaranteed starter. It is a familiar story for talented young wingers moving to clubs with genuine European ambitions: the level of competition for places can be just as significant an obstacle to regular football as any injury.
Last season, though, represented a genuine breakthrough for Driouech, and the numbers back that up emphatically. He made 40 appearances in all competitions for PSV, contributing nine goals as he began to nail down a more consistent role in Peter Bosz’s side. Perhaps most eye-catching of all was his form in the Champions League, where he scored three goals in seven appearances, a return that would be impressive for a seasoned continental performer, let alone a young wide player still establishing himself. Two of those three Champions League goals came against Liverpool, a detail that has understandably grabbed attention given the Merseyside club’s status as one of the European game’s true heavyweights. Scoring twice against a side of Liverpool’s calibre on the biggest stage in club football is the kind of statement that tends to catch the eye of recruitment departments right across the continent, and it is not difficult to see why Rangers, along with others, have been paying close attention to his progress ever since.
Driouech’s contribution last season played its part in PSV securing a second consecutive Eredivisie title, a considerable achievement in a Dutch top flight that has become increasingly competitive in recent years. Medals, then, are not something Driouech has been short of during his time at PSV. What he has found harder to secure is an undisputed starting berth, and the situation has only become more complicated heading into the new campaign, with younger winger Amir Bouhamdi having overtaken him in the pecking order during PSV’s pre-season preparations. For a player who will turn 25 in the coming seasons and who is entering what should be considered the peak years of his career, the prospect of continuing to rotate in and out of the side, even at a club as successful as PSV, is understandably unappealing. That shift in the squad hierarchy appears to have been the final piece of the jigsaw that has opened the door for a move away from Eindhoven this summer, and Rangers have moved swiftly to try to take advantage.
According to Voetbal International journalist Joost Blaauwhof, Rangers have formally opened negotiations with PSV over a permanent deal for Driouech. Blaauwhof’s reporting suggests that PSV are prepared to sanction his departure this summer, recognising that regular first-team football has become harder to guarantee, while the player himself is understood to be genuinely keen on the move to Glasgow. That personal willingness to join Rangers carries extra significance given that Driouech previously chose PSV over the Ibrox club two years ago; the fact that he is now said to be enthusiastic about making the switch suggests a marked change in circumstances and priorities, with regular first-team football clearly now the priority over squad depth at a bigger name club. RB Salzburg have also been credited with interest in the Dutch-Moroccan winger, continuing their long-standing reputation for identifying and developing exactly this type of quick, technically gifted young attacker. However, Blaauwhof’s report is clear in describing Rangers as the current favourites to win the race for his signature, a notable vote of confidence in the Ibrox club’s positioning in what has become a genuinely competitive chase.
Any deal, though, is unlikely to be straightforward. Driouech remains under contract at PSV until 2029, giving the Eredivisie champions significant leverage in negotiations and no pressing financial need to sell at a discount. Reports suggest PSV are seeking a package in the region of £7 million, including add-ons and bonuses, for a player they clearly still rate highly despite his recent slip down the pecking order. That valuation represents a substantial outlay for Rangers, but one that reflects both Driouech’s proven pedigree at Champions League level and his continued value within a squad that has just won back-to-back Eredivisie titles.
The situation has continued to develop at pace since Blaauwhof’s initial update. Further reporting from PSV specialist Rik Elfrink indicates that Rangers have already gone beyond preliminary talks and have submitted their first concrete offer, understood to be worth several million pounds. That opening bid, however, has been turned down by PSV, who feel it falls short of their valuation of the player. It is a familiar pattern in transfer negotiations of this nature, an opening offer designed to test the waters and establish a starting point for further discussion, rather than a final position from the buying club. Crucially, Elfrink’s reporting suggests that the disagreement at this stage is purely about the fee involved rather than any hesitation on the player’s part. Driouech is still said to strongly favour a move to Ibrox, and Rangers are understood to already have a long-term contract prepared and ready for him to sign as soon as the two clubs can find common ground on a transfer fee.
That is, in many ways, the most encouraging aspect of the story from a Rangers perspective. When a move stalls because the player themselves has cold feet, or because a release clause proves an insurmountable obstacle, deals can drag on for weeks or collapse entirely. Here, however, the situation appears to be a more straightforward negotiation between two clubs working out where the value lies, with the player’s willingness to move already established. That should, in theory, make it easier for Rangers and PSV to eventually meet somewhere in the middle, whether through structuring the deal with add-ons, sell-on clauses, or a staggered payment schedule that makes the £7million valuation more palatable for the Ibrox club’s finances.
Should Rangers manage to find that compromise and get a deal for Driouech over the line, the implications for McInnes’s attacking options would be significant. Pairing the newly arrived Yokota on the right with Driouech on the left would give Rangers two wingers capable of attacking from opposite flanks with genuinely different, complementary skill sets: Yokota’s tendency to cut inside from the right onto his favoured left foot, creating overloads through the middle and shooting opportunities from the edge of the box, contrasted with Driouech’s more traditional wide threat on the left, using his electric pace to get in behind full-backs and either cross early or cut inside himself when the opportunity arises. It is precisely the kind of varied attacking threat that has been missing from Ibrox in recent seasons, when Rangers too often relied on a single outlet or found themselves predictable in the final third.
There is also a broader context to consider here, one that goes beyond the specifics of these two individual deals. McInnes took charge of a Rangers side that had grown stale in possession and predictable out of it, a team that too often invited opposition defences to sit deep and compact, safe in the knowledge that the final ball would rarely come with any real venom or variety. Addressing that has clearly been front and centre of the manager’s thinking throughout the summer rebuild, and the nine signings completed so far tell a coherent story rather than a scattergun approach to squad building. Shankland offers a focal point who can hold the ball up and bring others into play. Devlin, Neil and McCrorie provide the platform in midfield to actually get the ball forward to the front players with purpose. Godfrey and Makhanya offer the defensive solidity to allow the team to play with greater confidence higher up the pitch. Yokota, and potentially Driouech alongside him, would complete that picture by giving Rangers the width and directness to actually punish teams who sit off, rather than simply probing patiently and hoping for a mistake.
It is also worth noting how this pursuit of Driouech fits into the wider pattern of recruitment under McInnes this summer, with the club showing a clear willingness to target players who have proven themselves at a good European level rather than simply raiding the Scottish market or gambling on unproven potential. Driouech’s Champions League goals against Liverpool are not just a nice statistic to include in a transfer profile; they are evidence of a player who has already performed on the biggest stage against elite opposition, and that kind of experience, even in a squad rotation role, carries real value when translated to a step down in overall competition level but a step up in terms of importance and responsibility within the team. Rangers fans who have watched previous transfer windows come and go with underwhelming wide additions will understand why there is genuine excitement building around the prospect of landing a player with this kind of profile and pedigree.
Yokota’s move represents the first piece of that puzzle falling into place, arriving just in time to link up with his new teammates for the crucial Europa League qualifying tie against Jagiellonia Bialystok, a fixture that will offer an early opportunity to assess how quickly he can integrate into McInnes’s system. Should Driouech follow him through the door before the transfer window closes, Rangers fans could be looking at a genuinely transformed attacking unit heading into the new Scottish Premiership campaign, one built around genuine width, pace in behind and unpredictability from both flanks. For a club that has invested so heavily and so broadly across every area of the pitch this summer, landing a player of Driouech’s calibre and recent Champions League pedigree would represent a fitting conclusion to what has already been one of the most ambitious rebuilding jobs seen at Ibrox in recent memory. With the fee still to be resolved and PSV in no rush to lower their demands, Rangers face a nervous wait to discover whether their transfer window ends with McInnes getting the two wingers he has spent all summer chasing.
