Rangers told they may 'treble' their money on £9m transfer as rapid cash return 'could be pretty significant'

Rangers have been told they could have a swift treble your money player on their books after one summer transfer deal.

The Light Blues have agreed a move worth £9m for Portland Timbers forward Kevin Kelsy and he debuted on Saturday in a 1-0 Premiership success over Motherwell. He will be relied upon heavily in the early stages of his Rangers career with Lawrence Shankland and Youssef Chermiti out injured longer term.

Stefan Borson, a football finance expert, reckons it’s a move with little downside for the Light Blues. If all goes wrong, then they will make most of their money back through an MLS side due to Kelsy’s strong record at that level, but progress could bag a fee heading towards £30m due to a lack of available strikers.

How much could Rangers make on Kevin Kelsy transfer?

Borson, a former financial advisor at Manchester City, told Football Insider: “Well, it's not a huge amount of money, and clearly if it works, it's a striker, and we know that there's a huge shortage of strikers. People are going to look at the Premiership ; he's going to get noticed. He's 22. It's a treble-your-money type of deal if it works.

"Measuring it in terms of risk vs reward, you'd probably look at it and go well, what's the maximum downside here if it fails? Presumably, one of the American teams would buy him back for at least £7m. You've got probably really limited downside, given his age, and your upside could be pretty significant and pretty fast if he works. I think it's the sort of deal that makes a lot of sense. Whether he's up to the standard is obviously very, very difficult to know."

Defender Emmanuel Fernandez said after the win over Motherwell at Ibrox that precedes a double-header with Celtic in the Premier Sports Cup and league: "I feel like the togetherness is getting better. Maybe our performances haven't been better from the Aberdeen game, but as we've grown as a team, we've got that togetherness. And I feel like we're growing, and I still think there's more to come.

Emmanuel Fernandez on start to the season at Rangers

"Obviously we had a bad start not being in Europe. It was difficult. So the manager showed us that there's still three trophies that are available to win, and we have a domestic charge where we have the possibility of doing something great. I feel like him showing us that and showing us how we need to get the fans behind us is the positivity he has brought.

"And within the team, the togetherness, the leadership groups, the leaders within the group, is something that the manager has brought to the team. All the anxiety of what's going on settles and I feel like that's where the team understands that this person is going to be beside them the next game, and this person is going to be here for the foreseeable future. And I feel like that's what you need as a team. Uncertainty over who's going to be here is a bit difficult."

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