'Simple' - Journalist shares 'reason they can't get rid of Ianis Hagi' at Rangers after transfer collapse

Rangers have not been able to offload Ianis Hagi because they already pay him too much, according to Hugh MacDonald.

The Herald journalist told PLZ Soccer’s The Journos show on 5 September that the rumoured £25,000-a-week contract the Romanian is on made a move to Rapid Bucharest impossible, after an exit collapsed when the attacker rejected the option before the transfer deadline [Sky Sports, 26 August].

Hagi has been frozen out of first-team contention and is believed to have a clause in his contract that will trigger a wage rise with a 100th appearance [Daily Record, 13 August] but MacDonald is convinced clubs aren’t going to sign him for what he is already on.

He said (16m 25s): “The reason they can’t get rid of Ianis Hagi is they pay him too much, it’s simple. There’s no great mystery or enigma about it.

“He’s on x-amount a week, teams that are in for him are going to say at most, ‘We’ll give you half of x, or a third of x, or a quarter of x a week’.

“The rumours are that he’s on £25,000-plus [per week] so Rapid Bucharest coming in for a player, they’re not going to pay 25G a week to him. And this is not an isolated case.

“And this we do know for a fact because we see it in their annual figures, their wage bill’s higher than Celtic’s right? You’re saying to yourself, ‘What?'”

Philippe Clement has no use for Ianis Hagi at Rangers

It would appear that Rangers have managed to back themselves into a corner so completely that there is no way out of the Hagi situation that won’t now cost them.

If a big-spending side suddenly decides to take a flyer on the 25-year-old and puts a cheap offer on the table where they agree to match his current wages it would provide a late escape route, but with the majority of the European windows already shut the options are dwindling.

Belgium, Russia, Turkey or Qatar might just about be feasible destinations but there are only days left before they are all shut [TEAMtalk, 31 August] and it has been very quiet on that front so far.

Otherwise the options seem to be for Clement to cave and reintegrate Hagi while the club take the hit on his contract in the hope he can pay them back on the pitch, or they negotiate a settlement to terminate his deal [Daily Record, 29 August].

The player himself has made clear he is committed to contributing to the team and has put the effort in for the B Team as the stand-off has developed.

But a higher wage would make it even harder to sell him in future unless he impresses and Nedim Bajrami’s arrival has surely made the manager even less interested in that option than when he only had Tom Lawrence at number 10.

So outside of one side blinking first there surely needs to be negotiations on a compromise otherwise everyone involved loses out.

In other Rangers news, yet another major injury blow has landed to make Clement’s life harder.

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