He wants to join: Rangers ready to seal 8th signing in the next 48 hrs, he’s Elijah Just 2.0 – opinion

He’s 8, this is it. Seven signings already through the door, a squad being reshaped from the goalkeeper position all the way through midfield, and now — with the ink barely dry on Vanja Dragojevic’s arrival from Partizan Belgrade — reports suggest an eighth addition could be finalized within the next 48 hours. For a fanbase that has watched transfer window after transfer window pass with cautious, incremental business, this level of activity represents a genuine statement of intent from Derek McInnes and the recruitment department working behind him at Ibrox.

The Serbian midfielder’s arrival on Thursday was met with plenty of optimism, but it was the pre-season friendly against Saint-Etienne midweek that really exposed where the squad’s remaining gaps lie. Despite securing a 2-1 win, Rangers looked short of natural width and creativity out wide, a problem that became increasingly visible as the game wore on. It’s the kind of performance that tends to accelerate a club’s business rather than slow it down, and that appears to be exactly what’s happening now.

What made the display against the French side particularly telling wasn’t just the result — it was who didn’t feature. Derek McInnes chose to overlook both Oliver Antman and Djeidi Gassama for the fixture, a decision that speaks volumes about where those two currently sit in his thinking heading into the new campaign. Add to that the confirmed departures of loanees Mikey Moore and Andreas Skov Olsen, both of whom have returned to their parent clubs, and suddenly Rangers’ options in wide areas look considerably thinner than they did at the start of pre-season.

For a manager who clearly values width and directness in his attacking approach, this isn’t a minor squad issue — it’s a structural gap that needs addressing before competitive football returns. And that’s precisely the backdrop against which the pursuit of Amario Cozier-Duberry needs to be understood.

Before diving into the Cozier-Duberry pursuit, it’s worth acknowledging the player who might have solved Rangers’ width problem entirely — and who ultimately slipped through their fingers. New Zealand international Elijah Just had been strongly linked with a move to Glasgow in recent months, with most of the transfer speculation actually centering on a potential switch to Celtic rather than Rangers. Regardless of which half of the Old Firm held the stronger interest, it’s now academic: Just has completed a move to Swansea City in the Championship instead.

For Rangers supporters, that’s a move that stings a little when you look at what Just actually produced last season. Plucked from Scandinavian football just twelve months ago, the left-footed winger emerged as one of the genuine breakout stars of the Scottish Premiership, racking up 14 combined goals and assists in the league for Motherwell and earning a nomination for the PFA Scotland Player of the Year award, an honor that ultimately went to Claudio Braga.

His end-of-season numbers back up the hype. Just’s tally of seven league assists placed him joint-fourth in the entire division, trailing only Callum Slattery, Kieran Tierney, and Calvin Miller — genuinely elite creative company for a player still adjusting to a new footballing culture. He was equally impressive on the international stage too, netting three goals for New Zealand during their run at the 2026 World Cup before their group-stage exit after three matches.

Given that form, a move away from Fir Park always felt inevitable, and there was a widely held assumption that either half of Glasgow’s Old Firm would be the natural next step. Instead, Just opted for an ambitious £6 million move to England’s second tier, chasing what he clearly believes is a more direct route toward Premier League football with Swansea’s promotion ambitions. Whether that decision reflects growing respect for the Championship’s pulling power, or simply the individual project Swansea sold him on, it’s a departure that will sting both Rangers and Celtic in hindsight.

But here’s where the story takes a genuinely exciting turn for Ibrox supporters. According to TEAMtalk, Rangers are closing in on a deal to sign Brighton and Hove Albion’s Amario Cozier-Duberry, with suggestions that an agreement could be finalized within the next 48 hours. If completed, it would represent Rangers’ eighth signing of an already remarkably busy summer.

What makes this pursuit particularly interesting is the timing and the profile of player involved. Cozier-Duberry isn’t just any winger being linked as a squad-filler — reports indicate the 21-year-old was the subject of a £5 million bid from Belgian side Anderlecht, underlining the level of interest already circulating around him elsewhere in Europe. Encouragingly for Rangers, though, the young Englishman is said to be genuinely open to a move to Glasgow, which should give McInnes and his recruitment team real confidence that this deal can be pushed over the line quickly.

What’s fascinating about this pursuit is just how closely Cozier-Duberry’s statistical profile mirrors that of the player Rangers ultimately missed out on. Both are diminutive, dynamic left-footers who do their best work cutting in from the right flank — a specific and increasingly valuable archetype in the modern game, popularized in the mainstream by players like Bukayo Saka, whom Cozier-Duberry has himself been compared to as a fellow Arsenal academy graduate.

The numbers back up the comparison too. During a productive loan spell at Bolton Wanderers last season, Cozier-Duberry scored eight goals and provided ten assists in League One — output that stacks up impressively against Just’s own tally of 14 combined goals and assists at Fir Park, especially when you consider the difference in level between the two competitions doesn’t automatically favor one player over the other in terms of underlying quality.

Dig a little deeper into the underlying metrics, and the parallels become even more striking. Cozier-Duberry created ten “big chances” across his loan season and averaged 1.6 key passes per game — remarkably close to Just’s own record of 11 big chances created and 1.4 key passes per game at Motherwell. If anything, Cozier-Duberry’s underlying creative numbers edge slightly ahead of the Kiwi international’s.

The comparison extends to ball-carrying ability as well. Cozier-Duberry averaged 1.9 successful dribbles per game during his time at Bolton, comfortably ahead of Just’s 1.3 average in the Premiership last season. For a Rangers side that was so clearly lacking in dribbling threat and one-on-one quality against Saint-Etienne, that’s exactly the kind of profile that could unlock stubborn defensive setups in Scottish football, where teams often sit deep against Rangers and dare them to break them down.

Naturally, a player generating this level of interest — and comparison to a Premier League-quality talent like Saka — isn’t going to arrive cheaply. With Anderlecht already having a £5 million bid rejected by Brighton, it’s clear Rangers will need to move quickly and decisively if they want to get a deal done, and it’s likely to require a fee at or above that £5 million valuation to convince the Seagulls to sanction the sale.

For context, that would represent a similar financial outlay to the £6 million Swansea paid for Just, suggesting Rangers are increasingly willing to move into a higher fee bracket for players they view as difference-makers, rather than simply targeting bargain buys or free transfers. It’s a notable shift in approach, and one that speaks to the ambition McInnes and the Ibrox hierarchy clearly have for the season ahead, particularly with European qualification and a title challenge both firmly in their sights.

Beyond the raw statistics, there’s a broader tactical logic at play here. Rangers’ issues against Saint-Etienne weren’t simply about personnel being unavailable — they were about a lack of genuine unpredictability out wide. Modern Scottish Premiership defenses have become increasingly well-drilled at nullifying orthodox wing play, and teams that can offer something different — an inverted winger who can both create and finish, who can beat a man off the dribble and still deliver a defense-splitting pass — tend to be the ones who break down deep-block opponents most consistently.

Cozier-Duberry’s statistical profile suggests exactly that kind of unpredictability. A player capable of both an 8-goal, 10-assist return in League One while also ranking so favorably in chance creation metrics gives McInnes a genuinely two-way threat on the flank, someone capable of both providing service to Cyriel Dessers or whoever leads the line, and contributing to the goal tally himself.

There’s also a sell-on value consideration here that Rangers’ recruitment model has clearly leaned into all summer. A 21-year-old already attracting continental interest from a club like Anderlecht, with obvious similarities to one of the Premier League’s most exciting young talents, represents precisely the kind of asset that could appreciate significantly in value with regular first-team football in a competitive European league environment.

It’s worth noting that this pursuit of Cozier-Duberry is developing alongside Rangers’ continued interest in Tromsø’s Jens Hjerto-Dahl, with the Ibrox side still believed to be competing with Cardiff City for the Norwegian midfielder’s signature. The 20-year-old’s future remains genuinely uncertain, and it appears Rangers are pursuing multiple targets simultaneously rather than waiting on any single deal to resolve itself before moving elsewhere.

That approach makes sense from a recruitment perspective — with limited windows to strengthen before the new season begins in earnest, and competitors circling for several of the same targets, Rangers can’t afford to let uncertainty in one negotiation stall progress on others. If both deals were to be completed, it would represent a significant strengthening of two different areas of the pitch: central midfield through Dragojevic and potentially Hjerto-Dahl, and attacking width through Cozier-Duberry.

Taking a step back, what’s emerging this summer at Ibrox is a squad rebuild with real coherence behind it. Seven signings already completed, spanning goalkeeper, midfield, and outfield positions, with an eighth on the verge of being finalized. Add in the ongoing interest in Hjerto-Dahl, and it’s clear Rangers’ recruitment strategy isn’t simply about patching obvious gaps — it’s about building genuine depth and quality across every area of the pitch ahead of what fans will hope is a serious title challenge and a strong European campaign.

Missing out on Elijah Just will understandably frustrate sections of the Ibrox support, particularly given how eye-catching his numbers were last season and how naturally his profile seemed to fit what Rangers were missing. But if Cozier-Duberry’s statistical comparisons are anything to go by, McInnes and his recruitment team may well have identified an even more productive alternative — one who arrives with continental interest already established, at a similar valuation, and with underlying numbers that in several key metrics actually surpass those of the player who got away.

Should the deal be completed within the reported 48-hour window, Rangers fans could find themselves with genuine reason for optimism heading into the new season, not simply as compensation for missing out on Just, but as a statement addition in its own right. The width and creative spark that were so clearly absent against Saint-Etienne could be about to arrive at Ibrox — and on the numbers alone, it might just prove to be shades of Just, or perhaps even better.