Rangers have reached verbal agre to sign a superstar who played exactly like Bukayo Saka
Rangers’ pursuit of attacking reinforcements this summer has taken an interesting turn, with reports confirming genuine interest in Brighton and Hove Albion’s highly-rated right-winger Amario Cozier-Duberry. Despite the Seagulls’ clear determination to hold onto their 21-year-old prospect, and despite already rebuffing a substantial offer from elsewhere in Europe, Derek McInnes and his recruitment team appear far from ready to abandon their interest in a player they clearly view as capable of adding real quality to the Ibrox attack.
It’s a pursuit that captures many of the classic tensions of modern transfer business: a Premier League club determined to protect a prized asset, a player whose immediate path to regular first-team football at his current level remains uncertain, and a Scottish Premiership giant hoping to leverage that uncertainty into a route toward a genuinely exciting attacking addition.
The case for Rangers’ interest in Cozier-Duberry starts with a look at what he actually produced during his most recent loan spell away from Brighton. Sent out to gain senior experience at Bolton Wanderers in League One last season, the young winger delivered numbers that go a long way toward explaining why his stock has risen so considerably over the past twelve months. Across that campaign, Cozier-Duberry contributed nine goals and a further 13 assists, an outstanding attacking return for a player still just 21 years old, and numbers that would represent a strong season even for a considerably more experienced attacker operating at that level of English football.
Producing that kind of end product consistently, rather than simply showing flashes of quality in isolated moments, tends to be exactly the sort of evidence that convinces recruitment departments a player is ready for the next step up. Goals and assists in League One don’t automatically translate to instant Scottish Premiership or Premier League quality, of course, but a return of 22 direct goal contributions across a single loan campaign suggests a player whose attacking instincts and end product are considerably further developed than his relatively tender age might otherwise suggest.
## 🔍 The Arsenal Pedigree and the Saka Comparisons
Cozier-Duberry’s footballing education began not at Brighton, but at Arsenal, where he progressed through the youth ranks before eventually making the move to the Amex Stadium back in 2024. It was during his time in North London that comparisons to Arsenal and England star Bukayo Saka first began to attach themselves to the young winger, comparisons that, while always requiring a healthy degree of caution given how frequently such labels get attached to promising academy prospects, nonetheless speak to the calibre of judges who were making them.
Jack Wilshere, who coached Arsenal’s Under-18 side at the time and has since gone on to further coaching opportunities within the professional game, offered a specific and considered assessment of Cozier-Duberry back in 2023. Wilshere noted the clear stylistic similarities between the young winger and Saka, playing in the same position and sharing similar attacking traits, while also being careful to highlight the specific area, decision-making, where the player still needed to develop in order to fully replicate the trajectory Saka himself had gone on to enjoy. Crucially, though, Wilshere’s assessment concluded on a distinctly positive note, describing Cozier-Duberry as “definitely exciting”, a description that carries weight coming from a coach with genuine top-level playing experience of his own and a track record of working closely with some of English football’s most promising young talents.
That kind of considered, balanced endorsement, acknowledging areas for growth while still affirming genuine excitement about the underlying talent, is often more valuable than blanket, hyperbolic praise, precisely because it suggests a coach genuinely engaging with the specifics of a player’s game rather than simply reaching for a flattering comparison to generate headlines.
## 💰 Brighton’s Firm Stance and the Rejected Anderlecht Bid
Any assessment of Rangers’ realistic chances of landing Cozier-Duberry needs to reckon honestly with just how determined Brighton appear to be to keep hold of their prospect. According to reporting from The Athletic, the Seagulls have already turned down a package worth £5million from Belgian side Anderlecht for the winger, a rejection that sends a clear signal about how highly Brighton’s hierarchy currently value the player, and how unwilling they are to sanction a sale at what they evidently consider an insufficient fee.
Brighton’s broader stance extends well beyond simply setting a high valuation, too. The club are said to view Cozier-Duberry as a genuine part of their first-team plans going forward, rather than a squad player to be moved on for a quick profit, and talks are reportedly already under way over extending his contract beyond its current 2028 expiry. That combination, a rejected bid from a credible European club and active efforts to tie the player down to fresh terms, paints the picture of a Brighton hierarchy fully committed to keeping Cozier-Duberry within their first-team setup for the foreseeable future, rather than one entertaining the idea of a sale this summer under any circumstances.
For Rangers, that presents an obvious challenge. Convincing a Premier League club to sell a player they’ve just rejected a substantial bid for, and are simultaneously working to extend contractually, would typically require either a significantly improved financial offer or, more plausibly given Rangers’ likely financial constraints relative to Brighton’s Premier League resources, a change in the player’s own thinking about where his immediate development is best served.
## 🎯 The Guaranteed Minutes Argument
This is where Rangers’ pitch to Cozier-Duberry becomes genuinely interesting, and where the club’s recruitment team will likely feel they have a meaningful card to play despite Brighton’s evident reluctance to sell. What Rangers can offer that Brighton, at this stage of the winger’s development, may struggle to match, is the near-certainty of regular first-team minutes in a competitive top-flight environment.
Breaking into a Premier League starting eleven at a club like Brighton, even one with a strong recent reputation for giving young players genuine opportunities, remains an extremely difficult proposition for any 21-year-old, regardless of how promising his underlying attributes might be. Competition for places at Premier League level is intense, and a loan move to accumulate senior experience, exactly the pathway Cozier-Duberry has already followed once via his spell at Bolton, often ends up being repeated multiple times before a player is genuinely trusted with regular top-flight minutes at his parent club.
Rangers, by contrast, can offer a route into a first-team environment where regular football feels considerably more attainable in the short term, all while still competing at a level that includes European football through the club’s Europa League qualifying campaign this season. For a young player weighing up the relative merits of continued loan spells away from a Premier League environment where his path to regular senior football remains genuinely uncertain, against the prospect of guaranteed and consistent first-team opportunities at a major Scottish club with European ambitions of its own, the calculation isn’t necessarily as straightforward as simply valuing Premier League status above all else.
## 🔑 What It Would Actually Take to Get a Deal Done
Even accounting for that potential appeal around regular first-team football, Rangers will need considerably more than simply a persuasive pitch to the player himself if they’re to have any realistic hope of prising Cozier-Duberry away from Brighton this summer. Given the Seagulls’ rejection of an already substantial £5million package from Anderlecht, it stands to reason that any deal Rangers eventually put together would need to exceed that figure comfortably in order to have any hope of shifting Brighton’s stance, assuming their willingness to sell can be moved at all given their stated first-team plans for the player.
That reality presents an obvious financial challenge for Rangers, who will need to weigh up whether committing resources of that magnitude to a still-developing 21-year-old winger, rather than a more proven and immediately effective attacking option, represents the best possible use of their summer transfer budget. Much may depend on how the club’s broader business shapes up elsewhere, including the outcome of various reported outgoing sales that could free up additional funds for exactly this kind of ambitious swoop for emerging talent.
The more realistic route to a deal, as with many situations involving a player under contract at a club determined not to sell, may well involve Rangers working to convince Cozier-Duberry himself against signing the new terms currently being discussed at Brighton, thereby creating some leverage over his future even without an immediate willingness on Brighton’s part to negotiate a sale. That approach requires patience and a longer-term view of the situation, rather than expecting a swift resolution within the current transfer window, but it’s often the most effective way of eventually prising a talented young player away from a club otherwise determined to keep hold of him.
Beyond the practicalities of actually getting a deal done, there’s a clear footballing logic behind why McInnes and his recruitment staff have identified wide areas as a priority this summer, and why a player of Cozier-Duberry’s profile specifically appeals. Reports have already confirmed that Rangers’ manager is keen to add further quality out wide, having already focused considerable summer investment on strengthening his defensive and midfield options.
The reasoning behind that priority becomes clear when assessing Rangers’ current options in wide areas. Both Mikey Moore and Andreas Skov Olsen arrived on loan deals last season, arrangements that have now expired, leaving obvious gaps to fill in the wide positions both players previously occupied. Djeidi Gassama, meanwhile, enjoyed a promising start to life at Ibrox but saw his form dip noticeably as last season progressed, meaning he now faces genuine competition for his place under the new manager rather than being guaranteed a starting role by default. Oliver Antman’s struggles to make a genuine impact in Govan have been well documented too, and it wouldn’t come as a major surprise if his time at the club were to draw to a close before too long, freeing up further space in the wide attacking areas of McInnes’s squad.
Findlay Curtis represents one homegrown option Rangers can call upon, and the expectation is that he should see his own first-team opportunities increase this season. Interestingly, Curtis’s left-footed profile would complement rather than directly compete with a potential Cozier-Duberry arrival, given the England youth international’s own reported comfort playing predominantly off his right side. That kind of stylistic balance, one player naturally suited to cutting inside from the left, another comfortable operating from the right, would give McInnes genuine tactical flexibility when it comes to shaping his attacking options depending on the specific demands of a given fixture.
## 🌍 Competition From Elsewhere
Rangers will also need to be mindful that they’re far from the only club showing interest in Cozier-Duberry’s situation. Reports make clear that several other teams remain in the race for the young winger’s signature, meaning any pursuit from Ibrox will need to compete not just against Brighton’s own reluctance to sell, but against interest from elsewhere that could ultimately offer either superior financial terms or a more immediately appealing footballing project from the player’s own perspective.
That competitive landscape only reinforces the importance of Rangers’ recruitment team moving efficiently and decisively should Brighton’s stance show any signs of softening, whether through a change in the club’s own financial calculations or through Cozier-Duberry himself indicating genuine reluctance to commit to fresh terms at the Amex Stadium. Situations involving in-demand young talent rarely stay static for long, and clubs that hesitate too long in formalising genuine interest often find themselves squeezed out by rivals moving with greater urgency.
For now, Rangers’ interest in Amario Cozier-Duberry remains very much a live situation rather than one on the verge of imminent resolution. Brighton’s clear determination to retain their prospect, evidenced by their rejection of Anderlecht’s package and their ongoing efforts to extend his contract, means any pathway toward an eventual Ibrox move will likely require patience, persistence, and potentially a change in circumstances that shifts the calculations currently favouring the player remaining at the Amex Stadium.
Nevertheless, Rangers have good reason to maintain genuine hope. The guaranteed first-team football argument remains a powerful one for a player still working to establish himself at Premier League level, and McInnes’s clearly stated desire to strengthen his wide options this summer suggests the club’s interest in Cozier-Duberry reflects genuine strategic need rather than simply speculative transfer chatter. Whether that interest eventually translates into an actual transfer, whether this summer or at some point down the line, will likely depend heavily on how Brighton’s contract discussions with the player progress, and whether Rangers can find a way to make their pitch, both financially and in terms of the footballing opportunity on offer, compelling enough to overcome a Premier League club’s clear determination to keep hold of one of its most promising young talents.
Supporters at Ibrox will be watching this situation closely over the coming weeks, hopeful that the club’s recruitment team can find a way to turn genuine interest into a concrete deal, even against the challenging backdrop of Brighton’s firm stance on selling.
