Rangers and Rohl must exercise £3.5M option on forgotten man

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Ibrox Noise

·17 Januari 2026

Rangers and Rohl must exercise £3.5M option on forgotten man

If there’s one Rangers player who gets no airtime, it’s Derek Cornelius. Out injured after surgery, the Canadian’s timeline is unclear, and it’s also unclear if he’ll play for the club again this season.

Let’s not forget Cornelius has an option to buy on his loan, and frankly, it’s hard to assess him.

Video OneFootball

The fee? £3.5M should Rangers exercise that option.

Endorsed

And Ibrox Noise is completely in support of Rangers doing so.

Cornelius’ CV is excellent. 40 caps for his country, and plenty of experience of one of the top five leagues. In his case, France, with Marseille.

Cornelius also ‘got it’ from the second he joined:

“At clubs like Rangers, there’s an expectation to win. And that extra pressure that we’re getting from outside and maybe the chaos that I’m stepping into, I view it as a privilege and as a challenge to come here and try to help the situation. Clubs like Marseille and Rangers, it’s clubs with fan bases that live and die for the club and when you wear that badge and you represent clubs like that, you have a responsibility to really show on the pitch for them. So playing at Marseille last season gave me a little bit of experience of just what I’m getting into coming to Rangers.”

Marseille are not the success they once were, but they will always be a ‘must win’ club, just like Rangers.

So psychologically Cornelius already understood the demands.

Martin

As for his talent? He never got to show it off – Russell Martin misused him like everyone else, and Cornelius never got a proper chance to shine.

He’s been injured for most of Danny Rohl’s tenure.

Cornelius’ data for the season? A rating of 7.25 in a system he was lost in. That’s better than all Rangers defenders bar Emmanuel Fernandez, and he only rates that highly (7.55) because of his goals.

Rating

As a pure defender, Derek Cornelius is the highest-rated Rangers player we have, and deserves a proper run in the team.

And believe us, Danny Rohl and the club go for the data approach so they will see the numbers.

Unlike Oscar Cortes who had had injury issues prior to Rangers and was mismanaged by Philippe Clement, Cornelius is a more sure gamble.

We would endorse that one being made permanent and hope to see a lot more of him next season if not sooner.

Bear also in mind he’s a valuable leftie, a rare left footed defender. Rangers have two. Him and Fernandez. Trust us when we say a Marseille and Canada stopper is better than an ex-Peterborough one.