Clement urged to use frozen-out Rangers ace as club perform dramatic U-turn on star with 0 minutes

Philippe Clement has been urged to bring a star in from the Rangers cold and back into his first-team shake-up.

Ianis Hagi has not seen any competitive minutes for the senior side at Ibrox this season. He spent last season out on loan in La Liga at Alaves and was unable to secure a move away from Rangers in the transfer window, despite interest from his native Romania.

His exclusion from involvement has been rumoured to be somewhat down to a clause in his contract. Sitting on 99 games played and one off becoming a Rangers centurion, were he to play that match, the Daily Record claimed in the summer “his weekly pay packet would rise by is around £6000, meaning it would cost the club around £600,000 if he remained in Glasgow for the remainder of the two years has deal has to run.”

Now, it’s been confirmed Hagi is training with the Rangers first team again after successful talks between the player, Ibrox chiefs and his representatives over a contract stand-off. He has been shining for the ‘B’ team, scoring a free-kick against Huddersfield Town and a hat-trick against Derby County. Former midfielder Derek Ferguson reckons Hagi is the kind of player needed in the senior set-up.

The ex-Rangers star told Ibrox News: “Well he’s the manager in terms of the football side of it so I don’t think any of the guys from above should be having their input in that.

“We hear all this about if he plays another game his wages go up but Hagi, to be fair to him, has come out and says he’d be willing to wheel and deal and come to some sort of other agreement.

“I just don’t think the manager can afford, at the moment, to ignore Hagi. He’s a good player. He’s proved that in the past. Again, we’ve got players in that number 10 role, in terms of Lawrence who scored a great goal, but we need competition because that’s the most important thing.”