Rangers summer signing deemed 'best ever' by rival boss as Celtic receive major injury boost
The latest headlines from Celtic and Rangers as Bojan Miovski earns rave reviews from a rival manager
Rangers take on Dundee United in their first match of the post-Russell Martin era and it’s fair to say a great deal of the spotlight will be on the performance of Bojan Miovski.
The North Macedonian claimed his first league goal since returning to Scotland against Falkirk before the international break but so far hasn’t been able to get anywhere near the heights he was reaching at Aberdeen where he scored 44 times in 98 appearances.
However, Tangerines boss Jim Goodwin has little doubt that Miovski will be a roaring success at Ibrox. He of course, signed him during his time with Aberdeen during the 2022/23 season and still considers the 26-year-old to be right up there with the best signings he has made in his managerial career so far.
Speaking ahead of the match on Saturday, he explained via The Courier: “I’m not surprised to see Bojan back (in Scotland) – in fact, I was surprised one of the bigger teams here didn’t take him first time around. “Everyone knows his qualities and the Scottish Premiership suits him. If you create chances for him, Bojan will score goals. He’s at a crucial time of his career and needs to be playing regular football. Rangers are giving him that.”
Jim Goodwin says it’s little surprise to see Bojan Miovski at Ibrox
Jim Goodwin admits it’s no surprise that Bojan Miovski has moved to Rangers and claimed Russell Martin’s interest stretched back more than a year to a time where he was still Southampton manager.When speaking about the recently departed manager, he explained: “Russell Martin was a big admirer of him when he was at Southampton so it wasn’t unexpected when he moved to Rangers. Southampton contacted Aberdeen, so it was no surprise he came back in to get a deal done with Bojan for Rangers.”
Miovski, whose only other goal in eight matches for Rangers came in the Scottish League Cup against Hibs, is yet to hit the ground running and some have asked questions about his quality after his underwhelming spell in Spain with Girona. However, Goodwin believes it’s only a matter of time before he starts to get amongst the goals again, adding that it’d be unfair to judge the player on his unproductive spell at the Estadi Montilivi.
“Was I surprised at the way things panned out in Spain? Yes, because you always back natural goal-scorers to score goals. I followed Bojan to see how he was getting on – and I know he was extremely frustrated at the lack of game time and lack of starts.
“You see Rasmus Hojlund who was at Manchester United. He’d scored three goals in 30-odd games for them. Now he’s got four in six for Napoli. Sometimes you need to look further and discuss the chances being created. Bojan thrives on balls coming into the box and makes clever runs in behind, so you need to get the right service for him. His movement in the box is brilliant, which we saw at Aberdeen.”
Celtic receive injury boost ahead of Dundee test
Alistair Johnston has returned to first team returning and is pushing for a place in the squad ahead of Celtic’s match with Dundee.
The title favourites have struggled to hit their stride without the Canadian international, who has missed over a month of action after being stretchered off against Kairat Almaty in the team’s humiliating Champions League play-off loss.
Johnston has been nursing a hamstring problem for over a month and wasn’t expected to return to the pitch until at least November. However, he’s currently ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation process and could feature this weekend, according to the Daily Record.