Rangers appear to lose major transfer target to Celtic | OneFootball

Rangers have (disappointingly) more or less dropped the club’s pursuit of Austrian defender Flavius Daniliuc after Celtic did indeed make their move upon the Salernitana defender, on loan at Salzburg.

The story originally surfaced after Austrian press corrected a false report suggesting Celtic had approached the Italians about his signature, when it was Rangers making the move, but unfortunately, naturally, Celtic immediately got involved and have completely overtaken Rangers in the queue.

We are not sure quite how serious Rangers’ interest in the 23-year-old defender was, but Ibrox Noise very much endorsed that target and believed him to be much more a Rangers-level defender.

It appears, however, that Celtic have stolen the march, and would be his preference in a choice between both given the Parkhead side can offer him better terms and will guarantee him Champions League football as well.

This is going to be a major issue for Rangers this summer more than most – with a modest budget and no guaranteed Champions League football, with Celtic the champions Rangers are going to find it near-impossible to compete with them head-to-head for players’ signatures.

Unfortunately in a straight shoot out, players will pick them over Rangers almost every time, given the plain choice.

This is a major reason for Philippe Clement and Nils Koppen trying to find hidden gems in Balbazore Division A Group C – it’s not just an apparent lack of budget or ambition, or the trading model, it’s also the fact we don’t want Celtic snaffing our targets.

There’s history for our clubs competing for players, older Bears will remember the Derek Riorden and Nacho Novo stuff, not to mention Scott Allan and of course Mo Johnston – it’s always been this way.

But right now, sadly, Celtic is the more popular choice of the two club for lucrative targets who want big salary and Champions League.

Daniliuc appears to be yet another of this ilk.