Rangers splash ‘huge’ cash in January transfer window as John Bennett backs up Philippe Clement pledge at Ibrox

John Bennett looks to have stuck to his word at Rangers based on the latest developments in the January transfer window.

Mohamed Diomande is set to join Fabio Silva as additions to Philippe Clement’s squad this month, but while the first move was a low-cost loan the young Ivorian is set to cost £4.5million from FC Nordsjaelland.

He is set to seal his Rangers move this week after travel disruptions were caused by Storm Isha to delay the transfer.

The Ibrox chairman had suggested that the new manager would be backed in the winter window at the AGM last month [Rangers Review, 5 December], despite Michael Beale spending significant money on his failed summer rebuild.

Bennett had said at the time: “The manager has been very clear on the challenges of the January window. But I wouldn’t worry at all about the summer spend that we’ve gone through and that impinging upon what Philippe wants to do.”

With a general expectation that if millions were in the midseason budget they would be offered to Hearts for Lawrence Shankland it was starting to look like there wasn’t much behind Clement and Nils Koppen this month.

But over three weeks after the window opened Rangers have decided to spend big on a 22-year-old midfielder, who will now need to do what too many of the summer transfer haul couldn’t and hit the ground running.

While the need for a striker remains, and Abdallah Sima’s injury could put a winger on the manager’s list as well, it is unclear how much more money might be available before the deadline.

But for the Light Blues it is already a hefty investment in a January window to splash out on a multimillion pound deal, whoever the target is.

Heart & Hand’s David Edgar reacted to the development by calling it a “huge outlay for January”, having originally been sceptical of the price reported by BT in Denmark on 23 January.

It is one thing coming up with the cash and another to spend it on the right players, as Beale proved, so a lot will depend on how Diomande performs at Rangers and who else Clement can bring in over the next week.