The real inside scoop of Ianis Hagi’s Rangers return | OneFootball

Eagle-eyed Ibrox Noise regulars will have noticed our Rangers output was on the low side lately, so normal service resumes today as we bring you the Ianis Hagi story, with the Romanian finally restored to Rangers’ first team, albeit he will play no part in Europe.

The former Genk man, who has been rotting in the B team for a number of months now, was banished from the seniors after he and his agent agreed with Philippe Clement around March that his Rangers journey was done.

There was also the major problem of the wage issue, which we’ll get to.

At that point, the £3M-rated Romanian international was stuck – he wasn’t getting any good offers globally, and the only ones he’d received were from his homeland with a massive 50% wage cut in there. This did not interest him.

But Rangers’ wage issue? 100 appearances and he’d activate a clause installed by hapless ex-Sporting Director Ross Wilson where his £22,000pw wage would hike to £30,000.

Rangers weren’t paying that, simple as that.

This left Hagi moored in the B team unable to do anything and unable to find an escape route.

This all changed in the past week.

Hagi approached the club with a change of heart – he was now willing to forego the wage increase, and just keep at present levels, and wouldn’t activate any clause if he could be restored to the first team.

Clement isn’t a massive fan of the playmaker, but he’d be the first to admit the injury list at Ibrox is always horrendous and he needs more options. Some of Rangers’ benches lately have been threadbare.

So with that in mind, everyone agreed that the ‘Wilson Clause’ be torn up, and that Hagi can now be selected like anyone else and his wage will remain at current levels.

It’s a better solution – yes, his heart is not in Rangers, trust us on that, but he wants to play football and prove himself for a future move and if we get more out of him now then we can’t complain about that.

But the impasse is done, and finally a silly stand off is over.

And that works better for everyone. For now anyway.