Rangers and Celtic both return to Scottish Premiership action this afternoon, with Philippe Clement looking to extend his unbeaten start as Ibrox manager and Brendan Rodgers hoping to bounce back from a Champions League thrashing.
This afternoon, the Gers travel to West Lothian to face Livingston, while the Hoops, the current league leaders, host Aberdeen at Parkhead.
Meanwhile, here are all of the latest transfer stories from Sunday, November 12th:
Celtic boss outlines January transfer ‘priority’
Brendan Rodgers has hinted that he will look to bring in a new striker in the January transfer window to compensate for the absence of Asian Cup hopefuls Kyogo Furuhashi and Oh Hyeon-gyu.
The Celtic manager admits that he will be without FIVE players in the New Year as they travel to Qatar for the tournament, with Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate, and Yang Hyun-jun also expected to be called up by their respective countries.
It comes during a busy period in the Scottish champions’ schedule, and Rodgers will prioritise the forward area as he looks to bring in more attacking ammunition. He also stated that entering the loan market is a strong possibility.
“We’ve given the Asian Cup a lot of thought,” Rodgers confirmed. If they’re fit, a large number of them will be present (in Qatar). That is part of our plan. Because it isn’t a surprise, it doesn’t change our plans for January.” We were aware of its presence. We discussed it over the summer, leading up to this window. We have it, and we know what we’re going to do with it. It all comes down to strategy. You have two options: buy one or look into the loan market. It’s always a matter of availability and what you can afford. Is it a significant loss for us (the players leaving)?” True, but there’s always room for someone else. Everyone can be replaced. You desire
Our first impression will always be from within. Is there anyone in the academy who we believe can fill in? You never know, you could have a £15m or £20m player in there. We’ll look into it. If it isn’t inside, we will, of course, look outside.
Players may also change positions. When I was last here, I used Patrick Roberts or James Forrest as a striker for a few games. We have adaptability in the squad, but we also know what we’ll need.
Rangers star ‘addresses’ permanent move rumours Abdallah Sima refuses to rule out becoming a permanent Rangers player after his season-long loan spell.
Since joining on a temporary basis from English Premier League side Brighton in the summer, the 22-year-old attacker has scored nine goals in 21 appearances for the Ibrox club.
Sima, along with custodian Jack Butland, have been the only real success stories of Michael Beale’s squad overhaul. And the Senegalese star has spoken about the possibility of a long-term stay in Glasgow if the opportunity arises at the end of the season.
When asked if he enjoys his time at Ibrox, Sima said, “Of course, if you play here like at a big club like Rangers, you know, and you enjoy every game, that’s why I wanted to play my football here and I found everything here to do that.”
“The most important thing for me is to play and enjoy every game here; without a doubt, I am very happy here, and my family is happy here, so we don’t know what will happen in the future.” I’m just glad to be here and playing football.
