4 years for Oscar Cortes as Rangers take massive gamble | OneFootball

Nils Koppen gave quite a few interesting titbits in his Rangers media duties lately, and one of those was on Oscar Cortes, not to do with injury, but affirming that Rangers have signed the winger for a total of 5 years, taking Cortes to a staggering 2029, in what is the joint-top contract at the club alongside Hamza Igamane who signed for a straight-up five years.

Cortes’ injuries are a well-known problem at Ibrox, but Rangers’ decision in extending his loan and making it a permanent signing for 4 seasons costing £4.5M next summer is a very curious decision.

Indeed, it strikes us as about as smart as Ross Wilson’s call to extend Ianis Hagi’s deal by two years right in the middle of yet another injury, while also adding that absurd appearance extension which would hike his wage to around £30,000pw on 100 apps.

Koppen has defended the signing of Cortes – clean injury history he says. And what we saw of the boy was very very good as well, he looked impressive.

But after injury, Rangers have made the decision not only to secure another loan, but make it permanent, securing Cortes’ future long-term at Rangers regardless of how fit he might be.

It’s a poor decision, if we’re honest. A player with a clear track record at Ibrox of being perennially injured and we’ve added a four-year contract at £4.5M to the pot?

Our best guess is this is the only deal Lens were willing to give – that yes, they’d allow another season-long loan for the Colombian, but only if Rangers agreed to sign the boy permanently next summer.

Meaning Rangers have accepted unfair and arguably unacceptable terms in what is a misguided decision from the club.

We do like Cortes, this is far from a hate-fest.

But Rangers have given themselves no insurance on this, putting high risk into Cortes as they did with Mohamed Diomande, setting the side back £9M total for ultimately not a lot of return.

Maybe Cortes will get fit for good, start to shine and the decision will look good in hindsight, but this means the call is a big £4.5M gamble.

It’s 50/50 whether we’ll hit the jackpot with this one.

If not, we’re stuck with an expensive problem for 5 years.