gers eye etuhu

[Guest Baxter]

Rangers are considering a move to sign Sunderland's Nigerian international midfielder Dickson Etuhu.

 

Etuhu, 26, joined the English Premier League club from Norwich City in July 2007 for �£1.5m and made 20 appearances for Roy Keane's side last season.

 

The dynamic box-to-box player won the first of his five international caps for Nigeria at this year's African Cup of Nations tournament.

 

Etuhu was born in the northern Nigerian city of Kano but grew up in London.

 

He began his career at Manchester City but started just 11 league games before signing for Preston in 2002 for �£300,000.

 

He played nearly 150 games for North End before joining Norwich after a loan spell at Carrow Road.

 

Manager Walter Smith has only strengthened his strikeforce so far this summer, with Thursday's Champions League signing deadline looming.

 

Forwards Kenny Miller, Andrius Velicka and Kyle Lafferty have all arrived at Ibrox.

 

But, with time running out to recruit more new arrivals ahead of next week's crucial second qualifying round against FBK Kaunas, Smith has yet to add to the trio.

 

Press speculation has linked the Ibrox club with a variety of transfer targets, including Portsmouth's Portuguese midfielder Pedro Mendes and Cardiff City's Dutch defender Glenn Loovens.

 

MY SPORT: DEBATE

Should Rangers sign a player before the deadline?

 

Highly-tipped Middlesbrough left-winger, Adam Johnson, 21, has also been touted as a possible loan option for Smith.

 

And the Glasgow club are thought to be still locked in discussion with Fulham over acquiring the services of midfielder Steven Davis.

 

The Northern Ireland international enjoyed a successful five-month loan spell in Glasgow last season and, with captain Barry Ferguson missing the start of the new term, Smith is keen on securing the services of the 23-year-old on a permanent basis.

[pete 2,499]

Why are we only fishing in the backwater of the premiership. There must be better players abroad than Sunderland rejects.

[Wija 0]

He is an internationalist and he is 26. Frankly he is probably the best we can get with the current trend to over price players.

[UCF2008 0]

Looks like he would be a decent enough buy, although it depends what sort of fee we're talking about.

[Gribz 847]

He is pretty much unproved really, but he has broke unto the Nigerian team and they are a good side so I wouldnt say he is a bad player.

 

He is box to box which I like but I wouldnt say thats the type of player we need as we have defensive players. We need a midfielder who doesnt drop deep at all.

[Cotter 0]

He is pretty much unproved really, but he has broke unto the Nigerian team and they are a good side so I wouldnt say he is a bad player.

 

He is box to box which I like but I wouldnt say thats the type of player we need as we have defensive players. We need a midfielder who doesnt drop deep at all.

 

 

 

Like Tam Buffel for instance.

[ascender 352]

Are we not getting close to the point where maybe Smith has to consider putting a youngster in to the midfield and giving him his chance to show what he can do? There's been a real clamour for someone like Furman to be given his chance, so maybe now's the time to do just that?

[UCF2008 0]

Are we not getting close to the point where maybe Smith has to consider putting a youngster in to the midfield and giving him his chance to show what he can do? There's been a real clamour for someone like Furman to be given his chance, so maybe now's the time to do just that?

 

I think we'll see a lot more from the likes of Furman & Fleck this season, albeit mostly from the bench in SPL games. I reckon Thomson, Hemdani, Adam and even Dailly will get a start ahead of Furman, but with the SPL under-21 rule not to mention injuries/suspensions, I'm sure he'll get his chance.