Then, on Sunday, Ferguson’s men were 3-2 winners at Celtic Park, with Nicolas Raskin and Mohamed Diomandé on target in the first half before, after the hosts had drawn level, Hamza Igamane struck in the 89th minute to snatch a famous Old Firm victory.
So, as Rangers look ahead to a huge European tie against Athletic Club Bilbao next month, enjoying having one loan star in their team, would they be even stronger had they been able to keep hold of another?
Why Václav Černý is in the news following Sunday’s Old Firm
The fall-out following Sunday’s Glasgow derby has largely centred around Václav Černý, who appeared to squirt some Celtic supporters in the front row with his water bottle while celebrating Igamane’s late wiRory Cassidy and Jonathan Blackburn of Glasgow Live have reported that a ‘police probe has been launched’ following the incident, with a police spokesperson saying “officers received information and enquiries are ongoing.”
Ex-Rangers right-back Alan Hutton, speaking Premier Sports’ Scottish Football Social club, said “he knows what he’s doing…he shouldn’t have done it… he could’ve started a riot”.
Meanwhile, Rangers supporters have responded to this by bidding for Černý’s jersey on a site called Match Worn Shirt; at the time of writing, the current highest bid is £24,000 while, for context, the highest bid for any other top is only £548, which is for James Tavernier’s.nner.
This is, of course, due to the unusualness of the incident, but is also a reflection of Černý’s excellent form, scoring 17 goals across all competitions this season, while his tally of six in the Europa League is bettered only by Ayoub El Kaabi of Olympiacos and Bodø/Glimt’s Kasper Høgh.
According to Mark Walker of the National, Černý’s parent club Wolfsburg would be willing to sell him this summer for as little as £6.75m, a deal Rangers absolutely need to finalise, thereby showing they have learnt the lessons from the last time they had an excellent attacker on loan, and failed to make the move permanent.
