RECORD-BREAKING RANGERS SALE ON AS EURO GIANTS RAMP UP NICOLAS RASKIN PURSUIT

Rangers are edging closer to sanctioning what would become the biggest sale in the club’s history, with Nicolas Raskin’s Ibrox future looking increasingly precarious as Villarreal and AS Roma continue to battle it out for his signature in the closing stages of the transfer window. The Belgian international, who has established himself as arguably the standout performer in Rangers’s midfield since his £1.5 million move from Standard Liège back in January 2023, is widely expected to depart before deadline day, with reports suggesting a deal in excess of £20 million would be required to prise him away from Ibrox and eclipse Calvin Bassey’s £20 million move to Ajax as the club’s record outgoing transfer.

The clearest signal yet that this saga is edging toward a conclusion came from former Manchester United chief scout Mick Brown, who told Football Insider that Raskin is now unlikely to be a Rangers player beyond deadline day, with growing interest from clubs across England, Spain, and Italy all converging at roughly the same moment. It’s the culmination of a transfer saga that’s been simmering for the best part of two months, dating back to Raskin’s breakout performances for Belgium at the 2026 World Cup in North America, where his displays in central midfield, including a standout showing in the group stage win over the United States, put him firmly on the radar of clubs well beyond Scotland for the first time in his career.

Villarreal have consistently been described as holding the upper hand in that race, with reports out of Spain indicating the La Liga side, under new head coach Iñigo Pérez, have identified Raskin as a priority target as they look to reshape their midfield following the departures of Dani Parejo and Thomas Partey, along with ongoing uncertainty surrounding Pape Gueye’s own future at the Estadio de la Cerámica. Talks between the two clubs have been described as advanced, with a fee in the region of €20 million, or around £17.3 million, understood to be the figure being discussed, plus potential add-ons that could push the overall package closer to Rangers’s stated valuation. AS Roma, for their part, have remained firmly in the picture too, with the Italian side reportedly retaining interest partly driven by the uncertainty surrounding Manu Koné’s own future at the Stadio Olimpico, a situation that would open up a vacancy in Gian Piero Gasperini’s midfield that Raskin’s profile, combining defensive discipline with progressive ball-carrying, fits neatly.

Rangers’s asking price has fluctuated somewhat over the course of the summer as interest has intensified, but the club has been fairly consistent in holding out for a figure north of £20 million, a number that would represent a landmark piece of business for the Ibrox hierarchy given Raskin’s modest original transfer fee. That gap between what Rangers want and what’s currently being offered has already cost the club one potential suitor, with newly promoted Premier League side Hull City having an offer in the region of £14 million rejected earlier in the window, a decision that reportedly frustrated the Tigers given how close they believed they’d come to matching Rangers’s valuation. Leeds United, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, and even Manchester United have all been credited with varying degrees of interest in Raskin at different points throughout the summer, though none has yet moved to formalise a concrete offer that meets Rangers’s demands.

The financial logic behind Rangers’s determination to maximise the fee is fairly straightforward given the context of the club’s ongoing rebuild under Derek McInnes. With the head coach having already brought in eleven new faces since replacing his predecessor, and with McInnes himself confirming the club’s intention to add a further three to five signings before the window shuts, funds generated from a Raskin sale would go a considerable way toward financing the remainder of that recruitment drive. Rangers have already been linked with further midfield reinforcements, including Jens Hjerto-Dahl from Tromsø and Lewis Ferguson, moves that would arguably become considerably more straightforward to complete should a sizeable fee for Raskin materialise in the coming days. It’s a pattern of self-funding recruitment that’s become increasingly common not just at Ibrox but across ambitious clubs throughout European football, using outgoing sales to bankroll further incomings rather than relying purely on outside investment.

There’s an obvious footballing cost to consider too, and it’s one that will sit uneasily with a section of the Rangers support given how influential Raskin has been for the club over the past two and a half seasons. His numbers speak for themselves, over 170 appearances in all competitions since arriving from Belgium, regular double-figure contributions in goals and assists across recent campaigns, and a level of consistency and physical presence in central midfield that’s made him close to undroppable under successive Rangers managers. His performance against St Mirren in the League Cup at the weekend, delivered while wearing the captain’s armband in Lawrence Shankland’s absence, was widely regarded as one of the best individual midfield displays produced by a Rangers player so far this season, driving the team forward with real energy and composure as Rangers ran out 5-1 winners. It’s a timely reminder, right as his departure edges closer to becoming reality, of exactly what the club stands to lose on the pitch even as it stands to gain considerably in the transfer market.

McInnes himself has been candid about the situation throughout, having previously described Raskin as a genuine “flight risk” this summer given the scale of interest generated by his World Cup exploits, while stressing that the club had already moved to reinforce the midfield area in anticipation of a potential departure. That reinforcement has come in the form of several of this summer’s new arrivals, and it does at least suggest Rangers haven’t been caught unprepared by the prospect of losing their standout midfielder, even if replicating his specific blend of energy, technical quality, and big-match temperament won’t be entirely straightforward regardless of how much money ends up being reinvested.

The timing of any eventual departure carries its own significance too, landing right in the middle of one of the most pivotal stretches of Rangers’s season so far. With the Conference League play-off tie against Jablonec looming and representing the club’s last route into European group-stage football this season, losing Raskin at exactly this moment, rather than at the very end of the window once that tie has been settled, would represent a considerable gamble from a footballing perspective, even if the financial rationale remains sound. It’s a tension that’s likely to run right through to deadline day itself, with Rangers needing to balance the obvious appeal of banking a record fee against the risk of weakening their midfield at precisely the moment continental qualification hangs in the balance.

For Raskin personally, the motivation behind pushing for an exit appears to be fairly straightforward and entirely understandable in football terms. Having established himself as one of the most sought-after midfielders to emerge from Scottish football in recent years, and having represented Belgium at a World Cup alongside some of the finest players in the world, the natural next step in his career trajectory points toward one of Europe’s bigger leagues, whether that’s La Liga, Serie A, or ultimately the Premier League he’s previously spoken about as something of a long-term ambition. Reports throughout the summer have consistently suggested he’s eager to test himself at a higher level, and with his current Rangers contract running until 2028, the club retains a reasonably strong negotiating hand even if all parties involved appear to accept that some form of departure, sooner rather than later, is the most likely outcome.

Where things go from here likely depends heavily on how quickly either Villarreal or Roma are willing to move toward Rangers’s asking price, and whether a genuine bidding war between the two clubs, something that’s been speculated about for weeks now without yet fully materialising, finally breaks out as the transfer deadline approaches. Given how much of Rangers’s remaining recruitment business appears to be contingent on the funds a Raskin sale would generate, there’s a strong incentive on the club’s side to get a deal over the line relatively quickly rather than allow it to drag into the final, chaotic hours of deadline day, though as this saga has already demonstrated throughout the summer, transfer negotiations of this magnitude rarely move as swiftly or as smoothly as either party would like.

For now, supporters are left watching a genuinely fascinating tug of war play out, one that pits the emotional cost of losing one of the club’s most important and popular players against the practical financial reality of a rebuild that still has further business to complete before the window shuts. Whether Raskin ends up in Villarreal yellow, Roma’s famous burgundy and gold, or somewhere else entirely, it looks increasingly like his time at Ibrox is drawing to a close, and Rangers, for better or worse, appear ready to cash in on their most valuable asset in pursuit of continuing to reshape the squad around Derek McInnes’s vision