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There will be plenty of change at Ibrox this summer after Glasgow Rangers confirmed that several players will be moving on from the club ahead of next season.

A new head coach will also be in the dugout when the 2025/26 campaign gets underway, as the Light Blues have confirmed that Barry Ferguson will not be getting the job on a full-time basis after his interim spell.

As well as the Scottish interim boss, Rangers have revealed that three first-team players will be leaving Glasgow as free agents at the end of this month.

The Rangers players being released this summer

Rangers have announced that Tom Lawrence, Leon Balogun, and Ianis Hagi will not have their contracts renewed, making them free agents ahead of the summer transfer window.

They are three experienced operators who will be moving on from Ibrox, and two of them – Balogun and Hagi – were part of the 2020/21 title-winning campaign under Steven Gerrard.

Hagi, in particular, played a big role on the pitch this season with four goals and five assists in 24 appearances in the Scottish Premiership after coming in from the cold.

These three stars are not the only experienced players who should be ruthlessly ditched by the 49ers, once the takeover is completed, and Kevin Thelwell this summer, however, as Robin Propper should also be on the chopping block.

Why Robin Propper should be sold this summer

The Gers swooped to sign the Dutch defender from FC Twente to bolster their backline in the summer transfer window last year after Connor Goldson moved on from Ibrox.

Unfortunately, the 31-year-old centre-back does not seem particularly suited to the physical nature of the Scottish Premiership, as opposition forwards have found it too easy against him at times.

Rangers only conceded nine goals in the 11 matches that he did not feature in and 32 in the 27 that he did play, which suggests that they were better defensively without him.

Appearances

30

27

Goals conceded

22

32

Dribbled past per game

0.2x

0.4x

Ground duel success rate

73%

62%

Aerial duel success rate

67%

64%

Fouls per game

0.7

0.9

As you can see in the table above, the Light Blues made their team worse by replacing Goldson with Propper, who has failed to offer more quality in the centre-back position, as shown by the stark contrast in goals conceded.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

Back in December, pundit Neil McCann outlined how concerning Propper’s performances were in the Premiership. He said: “Propper is struggling. He’s been pretty vocal over the last couple of weeks that he’s finding it tough in our league. He’s been asked the question early on. It’s quite worrying when you see him struggling as bad as that. Look at the body language – he’s looking for a way out already.”

This is why the 49ers must ruthlessly axe the central defender from the squad in the summer transfer window, if there are any clubs interested in snapping him up, because he has not adjusted well to Scottish football.

Whilst he is not the only player in the defence, it is worrying that there has been a huge drop off in defensive form since he was signed to replace Goldson, and that the team has a better defensive record without Propper in the side.

Therefore, Rangers must move on from Propper in the summer transfer window after they have already made the ruthless decisions to release Balogun, Hagi, and Lawrence.

Rangers looking at "outstanding" English coach who's better than Gerrard

Rangers’ six-man managerial shortlist has been revealed, and the 49ers should hire an “outstanding” coach rather than going back to Steven Gerrard.

ByBen Gray May 21, 2025

Arsenal are set for a significant call over potentially selling a “difference-maker” this summer, amid a serious issue which could determine his long-term future at the Emirates Stadium.

Mikel Arteta makes PSG vow after Arsenal loss to Bournemouth

The Gunners have a season-defining Champions League semi-final second leg tie against PSG on Wednesday – a match that will truly shape the course of their 2024/2025 campaign and determine the success of Arsenal’s year.

Related Trossard upgrade: Arsenal making move for one of the "best in the world"

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Posts ByJack Salveson Holmes May 6, 2025

Mikel Arteta’s side trail 1-0 on aggregate, courtesy of Ousmane Dembélé’s early winner at the Emirates Stadium last weekend, and they go into a testing clash at the Parc des Princes off the back of a shock defeat to Bournemouth in the Premier League.

Arsenal’s final Premier League games

Date

Liverpool (away)

May 11th

Newcastle United (home)

May 18th

Southampton (away)

May 25th

However, Arteta has vowed to use the frustration and upset from that loss to Andoni Iraola’s side as fuel to overcome PSG in the French capital.

“We certainly wanted to create a really good vibe, a positive result would really help us to build what we wanted towards Wednesday,” Arteta said in a post-match press conference.

“What we have created now is a lot of rage, anger, frustration and a bad feeling in the tummy. So, make sure that we use that for Wednesday to have a massive performance in Paris, win the game and be in the final.”

One player who has been unable to contribute recently is 2024 summer signing and Italy international Riccardo Calafiori.

The £42 million arrival has spent the last month out with a knee injury, and despite some excellent performances, injury absences have been the story of his first season.

Arsenal set for "big decision" over selling Riccardo Calafiori

Calafiori has been called a “difference-maker” for Arteta when fit and available, but reports from Italy are now claiming that Arsenal are prepared to sell the defender this summer as a result of his fitness issues.

Speaking to Football Insider, former chief Man United scout Mick Brown, who remains very well-connected within the beautiful game, says that Arsenal have a “big decision” to make over letting Calafiori return to Serie A.

“It’s a decision Arsenal and Arteta have got to make,” he told Football Insider.

“They will know the extent of his injury issues and whether it’s going to keep cropping up. Then, they’ll weigh that up against what they know he can do when he’s fit and they’ll decide whether it’s worth keeping him on.

“There is interest in a move back to Italy and AC Milan have been mentioned as one of those teams. If Arsenal can make back the money they spent on him last year, they might think it’s the best thing to do given how many games he’s missed.

“His injuries are a major concern because if he can only play in 15-20 games a season, he’s not going to be somebody they want to keep on the books. But at the same time, there are a few players who look like they’ll leave Arsenal this year.

“They can’t let too many of them go because their depth is already an issue. So it’s a big decision for them to make and one they’ll sit down and discuss soon.”

The left hander has worked on being a little less hard on herself when things don’t go to plan

Andrew McGlashan04-Jul-2024Phoebe Litchfield believes the lean run she endured during the latter half of last season will make her a better player in the long run with her winter having focused on both some technical work and learning to be less hard on herself when things don’t go well.Litchfield’s form slipped significantly early in 2024 following an impressive ODI series in India late the previous year where she averaged 86.66. The runs started to dry up after that tour with a thin return across formats against South Africa, a WPL for Gujarat Giants where she averaged 10.33 then capped off by struggles in tough batting conditions in Bangladesh where five innings brought 19 runs in four knocks.Related

• How Phoebe Litchfield moved up the ranks and made 2023 her own

• Litchfield: 'I play the reverse-sweep whether it spins or not'

“It was a bit of a dry patch to put it bluntly,” she told ESPNcricinfo. “I was training fine, I was in a good headspace, so I feel I just found ways to get out and probably made the wrong decisions at times. Towards the back end of the Bangladesh tour I got a golden [duck], got run out, so it was like it couldn’t really go to plan, but that’s cricket.”It’s actually been really nice to go through that and learn from it. I could have scored runs and happy days, but to go through that, especially as a young player, it has taught me ways to reflect and ways to learn and also ways to train. Whilst it was pretty shit while I was going through it, I’m better for it hopefully.”The strain of an increasingly busy calendar played a part – such is the maturity that Litchfield portrays, it’s easy to forget 2023 had been her first full year at the top level – but some technical issues had also crept into her game, and by the end of the Bangladesh tour she needed a break.Having managed that during April and May, she is now well back into building towards a return to action which will come in the Hundred next month. The international focus then turns to a series against New Zealand that provides a lead-in to the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh which will be Litchfield’s first global event. After that comes an ODI visit from India, a brief pre-Christmas trip across the Tasman then the multi-format Ashes in January. Throw in the WBBL from late October and it’s another hectic schedule.Litchfield on Bangladesh tour: ‘I’ve never played on anything like it’•Getty Images”Towards the backend [of last season], the WPL and the Bangladesh series, I probably felt it a bit, going ‘wow, we have to play cricket again today’, it does get pretty hectic,” Litchfield said, speaking at the launch of the Sydney Thunder Tape Ball League. “It is a game at the end of the day. But I sat down with the coaching staff, we looked forward and I’m just really excited. I kind of look at all the fixtures and each one’s new, each one’s different. But there are times when we need to switch off and that Christmas break will be important.”Amid the runs becoming a trickle there was a low score in the Test against South Africa in Perth when Litchfield edged to slip in the opening over of Australia’s innings. A little while later, the TV cameras showed her sitting alone outside the dressing looking less-than-pleased with life and it prompted conversation about how harsh Litchfield can be on herself.”I didn’t really know that camera was even out there,” Litchfield recalled. “It wasn’t until my team-mates were listening to the comms and they were like ‘Phoebs, come back inside’. I didn’t score a run during that South Africa series, and was pretty disappointed with myself, so that was probably true emotion shown there.

There were a few things with my backlift and we’ve sorted through that and worked out a few trigger options, trying to make things simpler…with that, learning how to get over things, so training, being okay with mistakes, learning from them rather than spitting the dummy

“Yeah, I am hard on myself, but I think it works both ways: it drives me to be better and there are probably times when I’m too hard on myself and it’s detrimental. I’m trying to work that out and think I’ve learnt from that and I’m definitely less hard on myself now.”Litchfield is eager to put her pre-season work into action, starting with Northern Superchargers in the Hundred then back to T20Is where, last season, she exploded in the middle order against West Indies and India, striking at 184.94 across those two series including a record-equaling 18-ball fifty at North Sydney Oval before batting became harder work.”Definitely some technical stuff that crept in, especially throughout India and Bangladesh,” Litchfield said. “There were a few things with my backlift and we’ve sorted through that and worked out a few trigger options, trying to make things simpler, that’s basically my goal for this pre-season. With that, learning how to get over things, so training, being okay with mistakes, learning from them rather than spitting the dummy. Really excited to work through this technical stuff.”Although the Bangladesh trip was not one that Litchfield will remember too fondly from a batting point of view, the lessons from it could yet be important come the World Cup even though the expectation is that the pitches will be flatter for a global event.”It was very different to anything we’ve played on, even compared to India,” she said. “You try and read the pitch, but it just has some hidden demons so playing six games on there, hopefully it’s given us some experience and learnings.”I’ve never played on anything like it. You tap and go ‘okay, that’s alright, it’s a bit soft’ but for it to turn the way it did, even our pace bowlers got some purchase off it as well. Hopefully we get some truer pitches for the World Cup, but you never know so those six games we did have, and they were all different, will hopefully stand us in good stead.”

The left-arm seamer first made his name in Pune club cricket before graduating to the big leagues

Shashank Kishore04-May-2022On May 1, Gopal Choudhary and Prembai Choudhary travelled over 500km from their home in Yavatmal, Maharashtra, to Pune to watch their son Mukesh play cricket live at a ground. It was a first for them, and being driven to the ground, offered premium seating, and generally being treated like royalty only added to it. They left the stadium smiling as Choudhary picked up four wickets to keep Chennai Super Kings’ IPL hopes alive this season.”It was an amazing feeling to watch him play live and do so well,” Gopal says. “I had only watched him live on the internet earlier. Before the Mushtaq Ali T20s in Lucknow [last November], Mukesh called and asked us to subscribe to Hotstar to be able to watch him play [on TV]. But this experience was something else.”As Gopal watched the IPL game, he recalled the time his younger son packed his bags as a 13-year-old and left Jaipur with his older brother to move to study at the Sinhagad Institute in Pune. “He always liked cricket, but he moved mainly to study,” Gopal says.The family had no background in sport. Gopal, a stone crusher, moved near Yavatmal in Maharashtra in the mid-1980s for work, but left his sons back in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, where they grew up in a hostel close to their maternal grandparents’ home. Bhilwara back then had just one multi-purpose ground, which used to host carnivals more often than it did cricket matches.Choudhary’s cricket skills were spotted during his days in Pune. One of his friends, a club cricketer, saw him bowl at Pune’s Law College grounds in a league game and suggested he train at the 22 Yards Cricket Academy, co-founded by former Maharashtra captain and national selector Surendra Bhave. There, he could hone his game on turf wickets instead of bowling on cement pitches.At the academy Choudhary caught the eye of several senior Maharashtra players who came to train there during the off season, including Kedar Jadhav, Rahul Tripathi, Swapnil Gugale and Ankeet Bawne, Maharashtra’s current captain.Choudhary’s Maharashtra captain Ankeet Bawne: He is a bowler who a captain can throw the ball to at any stage without thinking about whether he’s ready or not”•BCCI”This was around 2015 that he first came to our academy,” 22 Yards head coach Rajesh Mahurkar remembers. “He didn’t have much pace, but there was something we could work with. Along with him there were two other left-arm pacers. We spoke to all three of them and told them that there is talent, and we could work with it if they’re serious. That is how he started.””We worked on his action, pace, and got him up to speed with his fitness. What stood out was, rain or shine, he was very punctual. He wouldn’t miss training.”As we got him in shape to become a competent bowler, we had our next challenge. How do we get him to play more matches?”The academy wasn’t eligible to field a team at the Maharashtra Cricket Association’s invitational tournament, which featured the state’s top club sides and was a key event for the state selectors picking teams across age groups and for first-class cricket.”One of his friends, who happened to know Pravin Tambe, helped find a corporate team he could play for,” Mahurkar says. “In one of the matches he picked up a five-wicket haul and suddenly came into the limelight.”In 2017, Choudhary impressed with his pace and accuracy at the RedBull Campus Cricket tournament, where he played for MMCC College. Among his team-mates was an upcoming batter, Ruturaj Gaikwad, who would go on to recommend Choudhary as a net bowler to Chennai Super Kings in 2021.By then Choudhary had already bowled in the nets in the IPL, for Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians, after fine-tuning his action during a two-year stint at the MRF Pace Academy in Chennai, which he joined in 2016. There he trained under head coach M Senthil Nathan, who has been associated with the academy for over two decades and has worked alongside Dennis Lillee and Glenn McGrath.During his time at MRF, Choudhary would return to Pune to work with his early mentors whenever possible, but he needed to find a club that could compete in tournaments like the MCA Invitational.Harshal Pathak, the former Maharashtra cricketer who now coaches the Thailand women’s national team, signed Choudhary for Cadence Academy, one of the top clubs in Pune, soon after he returned from his first stint at the MRF Academy. A year later, on Tripathi’s recommendation, Choudhary moved to Deccan Gymkhana, the city’s oldest and most prestigious club, to train under former Maharashtra cricketer Satyajit Satbhai.Rajesh Mahurkar, Chouhdary’s mentor in Pune: “Over the past year or so, he’s been working hard to improve his pace. He has identified what he needs to do to get there. He has tremendously improved his fitness and diet”•BCCIImpressive performances for Deccan got Choudhary into the Maharashtra Under-23 team and the senior Ranji side in the same year. He made his first-class debut in November 2017, and now, at 25, is Maharashtra’s front-line seam bowler, now that Samad Fallah and Anupam Sanklecha have moved on.”He’s at that stage where he isn’t insecure anymore,” Bawne says. “He knows he is a regular. He is a bowler who a captain can throw the ball to at any stage without thinking about whether he’s ready or not. I remember a game against Odisha, which we needed to win outright. There was just one session left and we needed to pick up six wickets or so and then chase down a small total.”He bowled ten to 12 overs on the trot, took four wickets, and we won the game.”That attitude comes from within – the willingness to wheel away even on the most placid pitches. It’s no surprise CSK have backed him despite some tough games, where he has been hit for runs. He’s a quick learner, persistent, and a honest trier.”Everyone in the Pune circles describes Choudhary as shy, polite and simple. Mahurkar, who perhaps knows him better than most, speaks highly of his discipline and work ethic.”You will never see him gossiping about anyone. Hardly uses a mobile phone, max one to two hours a day. No WhatsApp, no Facebook. If he must communicate, he’ll just prefer to call.”He comes, quietly trains, does all his drills, he’ll come up and talk to us about something he wants to work on the coming week, and that’s that. You won’t see him idling. If he’s happy with one aspect of his bowling, he will work on the next. Lately, over the past year or so, he’s been working hard to improve his pace. He has identified what he needs to do to get there. He has tremendously improved his fitness and diet. That way he’s very systematic.”Before this year’s IPL auction – his first – Choudhary appeared confident about being picked up by a franchise. “He said MS Dhoni liked his bowling and has been encouraging him a lot, and possibly CSK could give him a call-up,” Mahurkar says. “It’s no surprise they actually bid for him and picked him up at the auction.”Having watched Choudhary’s evolution from close quarters, Mahurkar believes the next step in his journey is for him to become consistent across formats. “His strength is to bowl the ball across the right-hander, but lately he has developed the ball that moves into the right-hander, away from the left-hander.”He mentions the dismissal of Mumbai Indians opener Ishan Kishan from earlier this season as an example. In a game-changing new-ball spell, Choudhary knocked out an off-balance Kishan’s off stump with an outswinger and finished as Player of the Match with 3 for 19.Mahurkar brings up the two other left-arm seamers who first came to train at 22 Yards along with Choudhary. Following his IPL success, they returned to the academy to ask if they could start training again.”The same guys who at the time appeared to have more pace than Mukesh,” Mahurkar says. “They came back wanting to train again after seeing how far this boy has gone.”Can there be a bigger validation than that?”

The Los Angeles Dodgers made quick work of the Cincinnati Reds in their National League wild-card series as they cruised to a 8-4 victory in Game 2 thanks to big nights from Mookie Betts and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Next up for the defending World Series champions is a date with the Philadelphia Phillies in what should be must-see TV.

Major League Baseball seasons are marathons and teams rightly celebrate their accomplishments by going all out even if they have much larger goals in mind, so the Dodgers piled into their victorious locker room to party it up after sweeping the Reds. But not before manager Dave Roberts charged them with a responsibility.

"There's a lot of work to be done," he said. "My only ask is that every single guy be ready when called upon. Keep your minds right. We're going to need every single one of you guys. Stay in it. Stay focused. Keep playing for each other. Let's go!"

The end of the motivational speech meant it was time to pop bottles and Los Angeles, even despite all its recent history, enjoyed it like it was the very first time.

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O West Ham já prepara o anúncio de contratação de Luís Guilherme, joia do Palmeiras. Segundo o jornalista italiano Fabrizio Romano, o atacante desembarcou em Londres, na Inglaterra, para fazer os exames médicos e assinar seu contrato como novo jogador dos Hammers.

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A venda do jogador de 18 anos pelo clube paulista ao West Ham chegou ao valor fixo de 23 milhões de euros (cerca de R$ 130,97 milhões), mais 7 milhões de bônus por metas contratuais (cerca de R$ 39,86 milhões), totalizado a negociação em 30 milhões de euros (R$ 170,83 milhões).

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Mesmo não atuando mais pelo Palmeiras caso a operação seja concluída, o Verdão ainda irá permanecer dono de 20% dos direitos de Luís Guilherme, o que implicará em mais dinheiro para o clube no caso de uma futura venda do atleta.

As negociações entre o atual campeão brasileiro e o time da Premier League estão bem encaminhadas. O atleta viajou neste domingo (9) e deve ser anunciado ainda nesta semana.

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Tottenham Hotspur manager Thomas Frank is under “serious” pressure as a result of his comments following the 4-1 defeat against Arsenal in the North London derby.

Tottenham were the underdogs heading to the Emirates Stadium, and a defeat was always going to be the most likely outcome, but Frank was left unhappy with the overall performance, so much so that he issued an apology to fans after the match.

The Dane said: “Very difficult afternoon. Bad performance. It’s extremely painful to stand here after that game. We can only apologise to the fans for not performing better. I was very confident we could be competitive today. We weren’t.”

The 52-year-old also tried to put things into perspective by reminding fans that Spurs are still a work in progress, having amassed just 38 points in the Premier League during the 2024-25 campaign.

However, it would be fair to say those comments haven’t gone down too well, with an insider now claiming the manager is playing a risky game by speaking out like that in the press…

Frank under serious pressure after post-Arsenal comments

Football Insider’s well-connected Mick Brown told the outlet: “At some stage, he has got to take some accountability and he can’t keep avoiding the issues and pushing the blame on to what happened last season. That’s happened now, it’s done, and the focus should be on what they’re doing now.”

Brown also added: “The thing is, that’s only going to add to the pressure on him, and he won’t want to alienate the fans because when that happens things can only get worse.

“Obviously, after a game like that, serious questions are going to be asked but I still think there’s time for him to turn things around, he just needs to focus on the here and now.”

As Spurs are currently sitting just three points off the top four, Frank should be given more time to put things right, but things undoubtedly have to improve, off the back of what Jamie O’Hara branded a “disgusting” defeat.

It was not the first time the north Londoners have seriously struggled to create chances this season either, recording an xG of just 0.05, the fourth-lowest since records began in the Premier League, against Chelsea earlier this month.

After the trip to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, Tottenham will be looking to pick up just their second home league win of the season against Fulham on Saturday, with Frank hopefully implementing a much more expansive style of play.

Tottenham players disagree with Spurs hierarchy on Thomas Frank's future

Blades, meanwhile, will miss the ongoing Bangladesh tour and the following NZ tour with a back injury

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Oct-2025West Indies quick Shamar Joseph was in line for a return to international cricket this weekend after missing the Test tour of India, but he has been set back by “some discomfort in his shoulder.” The 26-year-old, who was with the ODI squad in Dhaka, has now been sidelined from the three-match series against Bangladesh as well.Joseph had been picked for the T20I leg of the tour too. A Cricket West Indies (CWI) release on Monday said “he has been recommended for consultation with a specialist in England to start the rehabilitation process.”Before the Bangladesh series, Joseph had missed the two Test matches in India with an unspecified injury. He hasn’t played any cricket since the CPL ended in September. There he represented Guyana Amazon Warriors for five of their 12 matches.Left-arm seamer Jediah Blades also joined Joseph on the sidelines. The 23-year-old, who has played nine white-ball internationals for West Indies, was ruled out of the Bangladesh tour and the following New Zealand tour with a stress fracture of the lower back. Blades will return home for his rehab.Allrounder Akeal Hosein and left-arm seamer Ramon Simmonds have been added to West Indies’ squad for the remaining two ODIs against Bangladesh. Hosein and Simmonds were already scheduled to play the three-match T20I series, which will conclude West Indies’ tour of Bangladesh.West Indies lost the first ODI to Bangladesh by 74 runs on an unusually dark Dhaka pitch on October 18. Their next two ODIs are on October 21 and 23.

While many would blame Russell Martin, the primary reason behind Rangers’ catastrophic start to this season is poor recruitment.

In attacking areas, Cyriel Dessers, Hamza Igamane and Václav Černý, who scored 63 goals between them last season, have all departed, replaced by Djeidi Gassama, Bojan Miovski and Youssef Chermiti, who are simply not of the same quality.

Elsewhere, Joe Rothwell has been cast aside since the appointment of Danny Röhl, while defence remains a major issue too, with Max Aarons and Jayden Meghoma appearing out of their depth, while a solid and reliable central partnership is yet to be unearthed.

So, when the Gers return to action against Livingston after the international break, should Röhl ditch an error-prone defender and begin to entrust his “colossus”?

Nasser Djiga's Rangers career so far

Nasser Djiga arrived at Rangers with a pretty decent reputation; a Burkina Faso international joined on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, who had signed him for around £10m from Crvena zvezda as recently as January.

Well, he certainly did not make the ideal start to life in Glasgow, sent off on his home Premiership debut during a dismal 1-1 draw with Dundee at Ibrox.

Just ten days later, Djiga was then at the scene of a catastrophic error.

The centre-back seemingly denounced any responsibility as the ball bobbled through the heart of the Rangers defence, allowing Romeo Vermant to open the scoring, the first of nine goals Club Brugge would bag across the two legs of the harrowing and ignominious Champions League play-off tie.

Djiga thereby found himself out of the team for a few weeks thereafter, albeit he has been reintegrated for recent matches by Röhl, after he switched to a back three, requiring a third member of this back-line alongside Derek Cornelius and John Souttar.

Nevertheless, he has not impressed, with the Scotsman labelling him ‘unconvincing’ following Rangers’ recent Europa League defeat to Roma, having previously outlined that the defender endured a ‘really difficult’ afternoon against Celtic at Hampden in the League Cup semi-finals a few days earlier.

That has sparked suggestions that his season-long loan could be terminated as early as January, a scenario that could well be sped up if Röhl gives one of Rangers’ forgotten summer signings an opportunity to stake a claim.

Rangers' forgotten colossus deserves a chance

Considering Rangers signed 12 players in the summer, a few of these new recruits have been overlooked and forgotten about.

Well, this is certainly the case when it comes to centre-back Emmanuel Fernandez.

The 24-year-old had already bounced around numerous lower league English clubs, Sheppey United and Spalding United to name just two, before making the move north of the border from Peterborough United, following an outstanding campaign in EFL League One.

He cost a reported £3.5m, a not insignificant fee for Rangers, but has barely featured for the Glasgow giants.

Fernandez made his debut against Alloa Athletic in the League Cup, marking the occasion with this towering header in front of the Broomloan Road Stand, starting at St Mirren the following weekend, but seeing a mere one-minute cameo at Easter Road since 24 August, an unused substitute on 12 occasions in total.

Upon his arrival, then-manager Martin labelled Fernandez a “commanding defender” who boasts a “strong physical presence”, while Darragh MacAnthony, Chairman of his former club Peterborough, described him as a “colossus”, adding that the “gentle giant” is a “great organiser and talker”.

So, let’s assess his statistics from EFL League One last season.

Goals

5

2nd

Tackles (per 90)

1.24

63rd

Interceptions (per 90)

0.91

46th

Clearances (per 90)

6.83

19th

Passing accuracy %

85.35%

20th

Passes (per 90)

65.93

5th

Aerial duels won (per 90)

4

27th

Aerial duels won %

62.24%

25th

Ground duels won (per 90)

2.87

35th

Note: rankings are defenders only.

As the table documents, despite only seeing 2,380 minutes of action out of a possible 4,140, Fernandez boasted pretty impressive statistics at Posh last season.

He scored five goals, including this rocket at Exeter City, while also ranking highly when it came to clearances, passing and aerial duels, helped by the fact that he is 194 cms (6 ft 4 in) tall when it comes to the latter.

So, given a chance, Fernandez could really flourish at Ibrox, hoping to replicate the career Calvin Bassey enjoyed in Glasgow.

When Bassey arrived at Rangers from English football in 2020, costing a mere £230k in compensation, he had never previously played senior first-team football, having merely plied his trade in Leicester City’s youth teams.

Initially signed as Borna Barišić’s left-back deputy, Bassey would ultimately become the club’s best central defender, a key figure in Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team that won the Scottish Cup and reached the Europa League Final in 2021/22.

That summer, the Nigerian international was sold to Ajax for around £20m, which remains the club’s biggest sale of all-time.

Fernandez is certainly more experienced now than Bassey was when his Rangers career began five years ago, given that he has a full season in EFL League One under his belt, a division that Global Football Rankings believes is comparable in level to the Scottish Premiership, just eight spots below.

Thus, considering the scarcity of other options, especially with Röhl electing to deploy a back three, Fernandez certainly deserves an opportunity to stake a claim, likely to prove more reliable than Djiga in the long run.

Bassey emerged from obscurity and the periphery to flourish at Ibrox – why can’t Fernandez now do the same?

Not Chermiti: Rangers flop is Ibrox's biggest waste of money since Lammers

This Glasgow Rangers flop is the club’s biggest waste of money since the signing of Sam Lammers.

ByDan Emery Nov 11, 2025

England Lions will play two more matches on their tour – against CA XI and Australia A, which will run concurrently with the first and second Tests in Perth and Brisbane

Alex Malcolm24-Jul-2025

England will play one practice match against England Lions in Perth ahead of the Ashes•Getty Images

England will play only one official practice match, against England Lions at Lilac Hill in Perth, in preparation for the first Ashes Test in late November.Cricket Australia announced on Thursday that the fixture would be part of a three-match England Lions tour that will run concurrently with the Ashes series in Australia.England will play a three-day red-ball game at Lilac Hill, the home of Midland Guildford Cricket Club in Perth’s eastern suburbs, from November 13-15 ahead of the first Ashes Test starting at Perth’s Optus Stadium on November 21. Lilac Hill was once the traditional first tour stop for all international teams when visiting Australia throughout the 1990s as the visiting Test team would play a 50-over festival game to kick off the tour.That tradition has long been shelved with touring teams not even playing matches against Australian state sides any more. England have opted to follow a similar pre-tour preparation that India had in Australia last year, except India’s only intra-squad match was played behind closed doors at the WACA ground with no media or outsiders allowed in.There is no ability to close off Lilac Hill to the public as it is open parkland alongside the Swan River. The WACA ground is unavailable on November 13-14 owing to a Sheffield Shield game being scheduled between Western Australia and Queensland on November 11-14, but both Australia and England will likely have access to the WACA ground for centre-wicket training and net sessions in the days leading up to the first Test.While England will play just one practice game before the first Test in Perth, it’s understood they may play another a two-day fixture in Canberra against the Prime Minister’s XI in between the first and second Test at the Gabba, which will be a pink-ball day-night Test. The Prime Minister’s XI match is yet to be confirmed but it could double as England’s pink-ball warm-up for the Gabba.Meanwhile, England Lions will play three fixtures in total on their concurrent tour of Australia. Following the England game, they will play a second four-day match at the same Lilac Hill venue against a Cricket Australia XI that will likely comprise of developing fringe Australian domestic and Under-19 players who will not be playing in the Shield round that starts on November 22.Shoaib Bashir played for England Lions on an Australia tour in January and February•Getty Images

The Lions will then travel to Brisbane with the England Test squad and play a four-day game against an Australia A team at Allan Border Field on December 5-8, while the second Ashes Test at the Gabba runs from December 4-8. The two Lions games running alongside the Test matches could allow England’s management to play some of their Test squad members if they are not selected in the XIs for the first two Tests.Australia’s selectors may field a stronger team for the Australia A fixture in Brisbane but again it will run up against the sixth round of the Shield.”The reciprocal A series against the England Lions is important for Australian cricket giving our players the chance to perform against high calibre opposition,” CA head of cricket operations and scheduling Peter Roach said. “We’re confident this series will complement what should be a fiercely contested Ashes series and have strong benefits for both countries.”It is a big year of Australia A cricket opportunities with the recently completed series against Sri Lanka A and tour of India in September before the Lions series.”It will be the second Lions tour to Australia this year after they played three red-ball matches against CA XI and Australia A in January and February in Brisbane and Sydney.Injured England Test offspinner Shoaib Bashir played all three matches on that tour while seamers Josh Tongue and Sam Cook, who have both played Tests for England recently, also played on that tour.England Lions tour scheduleNov 13-15: England v England Lions | Lilac Hill (Perth)
Nov 21-24: CA XI v England Lions | Lilac Hill (Perth)
Dec 5-8: Australia A v England Lions | Allan Border Field (Brisbane)