RANGERS manager Walter Smith has finalised the signing of 18-year-old Italian, Gennaro Gattusso. The midfield player joins the Ibrox team from Perugia under freedom of contract, and is the first evidence of the scouting network the Ibrox club has set up in Italy.
However, suggestions that Smith was ready to sign another Italian player have been dismissed. The supposed target, Parma's Allesandro Melli, had been offered to the Glasgow side prior to the transfer deadline. I understand that Smith pulled out of that deal and has made no overtures since.
Gattusso trained at Ibrox yesterday as he began to settle in with the other players immediately his contract was concluded.
There was more good news for Rangers yesterday when fears over keeper Andy Goram's fitness were dismissed after a visit to a specialist gave Goram the all-clear to restart training.
He has missed three matches with a knee problem and Andy Dibble was brought in from Manchester City as cover.
qMANAGER Roy Aitken's plans to strengthen Aberdeen were thrown into turmoil yesterday when the Dane, Alan Jepson, opted to join Hamburg rather than move to Pittodrie.
The teenage Aarhus player, available under freedom of contract, will earn #200,000, excluding bonuses, in the Bundesliga.
This follows Perugia beating Aitken for Aarhus striker Martin Jorgensen, whom he had been tracking for the last month. And Barcelona, Liverpool, and Ajax are ready to pay #2m in a transfer battle for his midfield team-mate Jesper Gronkear.
Aitken admitted yesterday: ''When you are trying to bring in top quality from Europe, competition for out-of-contract players is intense.
''I will keep searching but have to ensure that we get the best possible value for money.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article