Star who was ‘prepared’ to join Rangers can still move in January on one condition
Some transfer stories end with a rejection. This one ended with almost everything settled and no bid ever actually landing on the table. Lewis Ferguson, the Bologna captain and Scotland international, was “prepared” to join Rangers this summer — his own father’s word, delivered on the Open Goal podcast — and yet the move never happened. With the summer window now shut, the obvious question for Rangers supporters is whether the door has genuinely closed, or whether it can still be reopened when the January market arrives. The answer, according to reporting following those Open Goal comments, is that it can — but only under one specific
The background is now reasonably well established. Both Derek McInnes and Ferguson himself were asked directly about a potential transfer over the summer, with Bologna understood to be holding out for a fee in the region of £17m for their captain. According to Ferguson’s father Derek, speaking on Open Goal, his son had effectively agreed to the move in every sense that mattered to him personally. “The thing with Lewis was, he agreed everything,” Ferguson Sr said. “I’ve said that it was time for Lewis to change, he’s been there for four years at Bologna and it’s time for a new challenge. Most things were agreed. But there was never a bid put in.”
The reunion appeal with McInnes — the manager who gave Ferguson his big breakthrough years earlier at Aberdeen — was, by his father’s account, the driving factor behind his willingness to leave a settled situation as a Serie A captain. “He was up for going to play under McInnes,” Ferguson Sr said. “He loves Del and has a lot of respect for him. He was prepared [to go].” It’s understood Ferguson had made his mind up to decide on his future once he returned from Scotland’s World Cup campaign, and that decision, per his father, was in favour of the move.
What actually killed the deal wasn’t Bologna digging in, or Ferguson getting cold feet — it was money elsewhere in Rangers’ squad. Reporting following the Open Goal interview points squarely at Nicolas Raskin’s situation as the most likely reason no bid was ever formally submitted for Ferguson. Raskin spent the closing days of the window as the subject of serious interest from Besiktas, with the Turkish club’s push to sign him running right up against Rangers’ own need to balance the books during an unusually expensive summer that had already produced 14 incoming signings. With Raskin’s future uncertain and Rangers unwilling to commit further significant outgoing funds while that situation remained unresolved, the £17m required to prise Ferguson away from Bologna appears to have simply been money Rangers weren’t in a position to spend, even for a player and manager both keen on the move.
As it turned out, Raskin’s Besiktas move fell through anyway, with the Turkish side failing to meet Rangers’ valuation before the Turkish transfer window closed — meaning Rangers ended the summer having kept Raskin without ever getting the chance to properly test the market for Ferguson in the first place.
Here’s where the story takes its more interesting turn. Despite his father’s own rather blunt assessment elsewhere in the same interview that the “ship has sailed” on a quick reunion, reporting on the situation suggests there’s a genuine route back to a January move — on one condition: that Ferguson’s price comes down.
There’s real reason to think it might. Ferguson’s contract at Bologna is understood to run until the summer of 2028, which in theory gives the Italian club no urgent financial pressure to sell at a reduced fee. But the £17m valuation from the summer was always considered steep for a Scottish Premiership club to meet mid-window, even one that has spent as freely as Rangers this year, and there’s no guarantee Ferguson’s form over the first half of the season will do anything to push that valuation higher rather than lower. A dip in form, reduced game time, or growing frustration at Bologna over the sale that didn’t happen could all, in combination, bring his price down to a level Rangers might be willing to revisit in January — particularly if Raskin’s situation has been fully resolved by then, freeing up funds that were tied up in speculation over his own future this past
That Raskin subplot remains very much live. Sources have since told Football Insider that Raskin could still agree a move away from Ibrox come January, with Besiktas’ interest unlikely to have gone away simply because a deal wasn’t completed in the summer. Other suitors, including reported interest from clubs further afield after a strong World Cup showing with Belgium, may also step up their pursuit if circumstances shift over the coming months. For Rangers, that means the same dynamic that scuppered a Ferguson deal this summer — an outgoing sale that needs resolving before incoming business becomes realistic — could easily resurface in January too, for better or worse depending on how quickly and for how much Raskin ultimately departs.
None of this guarantees Ferguson will actually be wearing a Rangers jersey by February. Football is littered with near-miss transfer stories that never get revived, and Bologna have shown no obvious inclination to let their captain go on the cheap regardless of what happened over the summer. But the ingredients for a genuine reunion remain in place: a manager who wants him, a player who was prepared to come, and a fee that — while too rich for Rangers in September — has every chance of looking more manageable in January if form, circumstance, or simple leverage shift even slightly in Rangers’ favour.
For now, the story sits in a familiar kind of transfer limbo — not dead, not alive, but very much dependent on developments at both ends of the deal over the coming months. Rangers fans hoping for a reunion between McInnes and his former Aberdeen captain will want to keep a close eye on two things in the meantime: how Ferguson performs for Bologna between now and January, and how quickly Rangers manage to finally resolve the Raskin situation that got in the way the first time around.
