Rangers’ 9th Signing Is Almost DONE! Official Confirmation Expected Very Soon! 😱💙 Rangers are closing in on their ninth signing of the summer, with the deal now in its final stages and an official announcement expected soon
It is game day once again at Ibrox, with Derek McInnes preparing to lead Rangers into another new campaign on Friday evening, and there is a genuine sense that this feels like an entirely different era for the Glasgow giants compared to where things stood when the 2025/26 Premiership season wrapped up. It barely feels like any time has passed at all since that campaign drew to a close, yet supporters find themselves right back in the thick of pre-season anticipation, with plenty to be excited about heading into the new term. A new head coach is now in place, a new captain has been installed, and as many as eight fresh faces have already walked through the doors at Ibrox this summer, with the most recent of those arrivals coming in the shape of South African international Olwethu Makhanya.
McInnes and the club’s recruitment team appear to be taking absolutely nothing for granted this time around, embarking on what amounts to a wholesale overhaul of a Rangers squad that visibly wilted in the closing stages of last season once the post-split fixtures arrived. That willingness to be ruthless in reshaping the group has already claimed a notable casualty in the form of Oliver Antman, whose Ibrox career has come to an end after just a single season north of the border.
Why cashing in on Antman so quickly was the correct call
Rangers operate in an environment where patience is in desperately short supply, playing in a city where finishing second is often treated as good as finishing last, and that reality means new arrivals simply do not have the luxury of a prolonged bedding-in period. Joe Rothwell discovered exactly that the hard way last season, shown the door after only six months at the club, and Antman has now followed a similar path out of Ibrox having failed to make the impact many had hoped for.
There had been real excitement surrounding Antman’s arrival twelve months ago, and it was easy to see why given the outstanding campaign the Finland international had just enjoyed in the Eredivisie, where he found the net six times and laid on a remarkable fifteen assists during the 2024/25 season. Those numbers pointed to a player capable of establishing himself as the long-term answer on Rangers’ right flank, a position that had been left vacant following the departure of Vaclav Cerny at the end of his hugely productive loan spell at the club. Unfortunately for Antman, injuries disrupted his first year at Ibrox significantly, limiting him to just eight Premiership starts across the entire campaign and preventing him from ever really finding his rhythm in Scottish football.
That drastically reduced game time inevitably translated into a similarly reduced offensive output, with the former Go Ahead Eagles winger managing just a single goal and three assists across the season, while his tally of only three big chances created fell well short of the sixteen he had managed the year before in Holland. It says a great deal about how the club’s hierarchy view his contribution that, at a moment when Rangers are far from blessed with depth out wide following the departures of both Mikey Moore and Andreas Skov Olsen back to their parent clubs, McInnes has still been willing to let Antman leave. Reading between the lines, that decision strongly suggests a replacement had already been identified and was likely close to being finalised before Antman’s exit was confirmed.
How Rangers can find an instant upgrade on their outgoing winger
Signing number eight of the summer arrived in the form of Philadelphia Union defender Olwethu Makhanya, with the Ibrox hierarchy securing the services of the young centre-back fresh off the back of his World Cup exploits over the summer. The 22-year-old had established himself as one of the breakout stars of MLS last season, and his arrival at Rangers is being viewed by many as another shrewd piece of business from a recruitment department that has been busy reshaping the squad from back to front.
However, it is the club’s potential ninth signing of the window that could end up representing the more eye-catching addition, with reports from the Daily Record suggesting Rangers are actively exploring a deal to bring Vaclav Cerny back to Glasgow for a second spell at the club. The 28-year-old has found himself slipping down the pecking order at Besiktas in recent months, and speculation linking the Turkish side with a move for Mohamed Salah has only added further uncertainty to his long-term future in Istanbul.
There have been suggestions circulating that Rangers could be prepared to break with their usual policy around player resale value in order to get a deal for the Czech winger over the line, with a fee in excess of £5 million mooted just twelve months on from his initial departure for Istanbul. The old football adage warns that players should never go back to a club they have already left, but given just how threadbare Rangers currently look out wide, a reunion with Cerny could prove to be exactly the kind of pragmatic, much-needed solution the squad requires heading into the new campaign.
The case for Cerny is a compelling one when set directly against Antman’s underwhelming debut season at the club. Where Antman struggled throughout 2025/26, Cerny was a genuinely electric performer during his own debut campaign at Ibrox, having originally arrived on loan from Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg. Across 33 Premiership appearances that season, the winger was directly involved in sixteen goals through a combination of strikes and assists, while his underlying numbers were similarly impressive, averaging 1.4 successful dribbles and 2.5 key passes per game. Antman’s own figures from last season pale by comparison, with the Finn managing just 0.8 successful dribbles and 1.4 key passes per game across the same metrics.
Cerny’s influence extended well beyond the domestic league too, with the winger serving as the driving force behind Rangers’ run through the Europa League during that campaign, contributing to eight goals through goals and assists combined across just twelve appearances in the competition. Antman, by contrast, failed to register a single goal involvement in five Europa League outings last season, a stark illustration of just how differently the two wingers’ spells at Ibrox have unfolded.
Life in Turkey has not quite mirrored Cerny’s heroics at Rangers, though he has still managed to remain productive, registering thirteen goals and assists in the Super Lig last season, a return only bettered at Ibrox itself by Youssef Chermiti’s twenty. With Moore having already returned to his parent club in north London, there is a strong argument that Cerny could prove to be exactly the game-changing attacking presence that McInnes’ rebuilding Rangers side is currently crying out for, particularly given how quickly he endeared himself to the Ibrox faithful during his first spell at the club.
It is difficult to identify too many alternative options who would be better positioned to hit the ground running at Rangers this season than a returning Cerny, given his familiarity with the club, the league, and the demands of playing under the bright lights of Glasgow’s Old Firm rivalry. For a Rangers side actively searching for reliability and end product out wide following Antman’s disappointing spell and the exits of both Moore and Skov Olsen, a reunion with a player who has already proven he can deliver at this level looks like precisely the kind of low-risk, high-reward business the club should be pursuing as the transfer window edges toward its conclusion.
Whether Rangers ultimately move to break their resale value policy and complete a deal worth more than £5 million remains to be seen, but given the widening gap in output between what Cerny previously offered and what Antman was able to provide during his injury-hit season at Ibrox, the rationale behind pursuing a return for the Czech international looks difficult to argue against. With pre-season matches already underway and the new campaign kicking off imminently, time is very much of the essence for Rangers to get any potential deal for Cerny over the line, ensuring McInnes has every attacking option available to him as the club looks to bounce back from a difficult end to last season and re-establish itself at the top of Scottish football.
