The rangers aimed at signing a “crazy talent” instead of darling

A few huge weeks are ahead of the Rangers.

After the Gers suffered a miserable campaign the last time, the new manager Russell Martin has a lot of work to do if he will dethrone Celtic at the top of the table of Scottish Prime Minister.

Martin’s first competition match is less than four weeks old, welcoming Panathinaikos to Ibrox in the second qualification round of the Champions League, while the Light Blues will start their Prime Minister’s campaign against Motherwell in Fir Park on August 2.

Before that, the club should make countless new signatures, so are they about to strengthen their backline?

Rangers targeting a new central defender

According to the report by Hrvoje Timoni in Croatian Outlet 24 Sata, the Rangers are `seriously interested ” to point out the defender of Osijek Luka Jelenić, confronted with competition from Portuguese Guimarães Vitória.

They add that Jelenić only joined Osijek de Varaždin for € 800,000 (around £ 685,000) a year ago, but the reliable “central defender” should be sold for serious money ”, after many “quality” performances, despite the fact that his team finished seventh in the seventh of last year.

Rangers need central defensive reinforcements, especially after being confirmed on Friday that Leon Balogun had left the club on a free agent for Aris Limassol, where he could associate with a familiar face, namely Connor Goldson, in Cyprus next season.

So, could Jelenić prove to be a clever addition?

How Jelenić would improve the rangers

As was largely reported, the Rangers were strongly interested in sign Harry Darling during a free transfer this summer, since English worked with Martin at MK Dons and Swansea, but he chose to join Norwich City and Liam Manning instead in the championship,

This apparently saw them increase their interest in Jelenić, returning to a familiar source of talent, after having failed to convince the star of Now Canaries to move to Ibrox.

In July 2018, Steven Gerrard’s team dropped Nk Osijek outside the Europa League qualifications, with Alfredo Morelos the only scorer at the Stadion Gradski VRT, before a 1-1 draw in Glasgow a week later, seeing them progress.

Gerrard was so impressed by white and blues that he quickly signed two of their players.

The least said about Eros Grezda, the better, but the 2.2 million pounds sterling reported to guarantee the signature of Borna Barišić turned out to be a good deal, given that he would make 236 appearances in a light blue jersey, winning the three domestic trophies, as well as as a key figure in the side that has reached the Europa league final of 2022.

So, could Jelenić have a similar impact?

Well, let’s assess its statistics from the Prva HNL of this season.

As the table describes, despite the somewhat limited minutes, Jelenić ranked well for each defensive metric, as well as the precision of passage, also stressing that he is a well -balanced defender, who is particularly great for reading the game to make interceptions.

By comparison, Darling ranked 233rd in the EFL championship for the plated (31) and 130th for the interceptions (25), while recording a pass precision of 87.8%, only slightly higher than the figure of Jelenić, which suggests that the Croatian star could offer considerably more to the team from a defensive point of view.

Jacek Kulig of the football talented scout labels a “crazy talent”, while the writer Kai Watson explains how, at 6 ft 2, Jelenić impose physically and has “solid” defensive capacities, while being well in possession.

Meanwhile, Juan Carlos Molero underlines how he is “difficult to beat” in defensive duels, and rarely be wrong.

Thus, while Top Target Darling, which left elsewhere, is more known, Jelenić is certainly a young defender with enormous potential, so that would be an excellent work if the Rangers are able to add it to their team.

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