Rangers are having an incredible transfer season as Pedro Caixinha has reportedly completed their ninth signing of the season in Championship player Graham Dorrans. The Norwich City star has been linked with a move away from the club for quite some now and the Canaries finally agreed to £1.3million with add-ons included after rejecting their two bids earlier.
Apart from the malleolar injury in December last year, which forced the Scottish international to miss 16 games, the central midfielder has been a regular for the side otherwise. He has scored six goals and assisted once in the process. Rangers have already added Daniel Candeias and highly-rated Carlos Pena in their midfield and Dorrans’ arrival will only strengthen it.
The Teddy Bears managed to finish at a decent third position in the Scottish Premiership and Caixinha’s job, arriving abruptly in the midseason, was all the more difficult to keep the consistency going following a sudden managerial change. However, the Portuguese boss did brilliantly to tie the loose ends and get on with the job as soon as the season ended.
Although it might seem that more than enough reinforcements have been got in before they kick-off the next season, Rangers’ managing director Stewart Robertson thinks there are more to come. While announcing Dorrans’, signing he stated, “There are still another couple we are still chasing and hopefully, touch wood, we can bring them in in due course.”
Rangers took way too long to get their hands on Dorrans who has been a lifelong Rangers fan. Moving to Ibrox Stadium is surely a dream come true for the player and Norwich could only resist that much. The midfielder matches Caixinha’s requirement of having players with a decent experience in the national and state level.
Norwich’s failure to gain promotion last season has activated huge changes in the squad and Dorrans was a sure departure this summer. Rangers’ previous two bids, which are believed to be below £1 million were rejected by Norwich.
And the price justifies Dorrans’ talent. The Scotsman had a decent passing accuracy of 86.3% last season despite struggling to keep pace with his muscle injury. And that doesn’t make him any less of a defender. At 30, he has an averaged 0.9 key passes, 1.7 tackles, 1.9 interceptions, 1.5 clearances and 0.1 blocks per game. It only reflects his consistency and discipline from the midfield, which would be immensely helpful for the Rangers.
If competing with Celtic shoulder to shoulder is one of Rangers’ prime targets next season, then they have made a fantastic progress.
Stats Courtesy: whoscored
