Rangers to pay £3m for Hagi deal

RANGERS will pay around £3million to complete the signing of Ianis Hagi from Genk. The Belgian club last night claimed the 21-year-old had ‘definitively switched’ to Ibrox after Rangers took up their option to buy — before removing the statement from their website less than an hour later.

Sportsmail understands the change was made because a written agreement had yet to be signed off but that only formalities remain to be concluded. The initial exclusive

purchase clause Rangers held for Hagi was set at £4.4m. However, that fee has been negotiated down to close to £3m — with payments spread over the course of the player’s three-year contract. Recent talks between the two clubs were influenced by the impact of the coronavirus crisis and Hagi’s desire to return to Ibrox after joining on loan in January. The 21-year-old (right) — son of Romania legend Gheorghe — scored three goals in 12 appearances for Steven Gerrard’s side, including a double in a Europa League win over Braga.

Meanwhile, Walter Smith hopes Rangers can channel their frustration over this season’s title outcome into a renewed bid to prevent Celtic from making it ten-in-a-row. The Parkhead club were last week handed their ninth successive championship by the SPFL board on a points-per-game basis after it was decided the Premiership campaign could not be finished.

Neil Lennon’s men were 13 points clear of their rivals with eight games to play when coronavirus shut down Scottish football, but the decision has upset many associated with Ibrox. Former Rangers defender Gareth McAuley has branded Celtic’s title success ‘tainted and hollow’. Smith feels his former employers must focus on the future and believes they can draw motivation from Celtic having equalled the record nine-in-a-row sequence. ‘Hopefully it will spur them on,’ said the Ibrox legend, who led Rangers to the landmark in the 1990s. ‘I don’t think there’s any doubt that, for Rangers, they’ve had a lot of years now where Celtic have been uppermost in the league. They’ve had a really good team and managed to win nine championships in a row — well, eight championships in a row and now this one. ‘I think we’re in strange times. Whether we like it or we don’t, we just have to accept it and get on with it. ‘And hopefully Rangers, who have been making progress under Steven Gerrard over the last couple of seasons, can get together and try and prevent Celtic getting ten.’ Rangers won the 1975 title to stop Jock Stein’s Celtic from making it a full decade of dominance before Wim Jansen’s Parkhead team halted the Ibrox ten-in-row bid in 1998.

‘When we were at nine-in-arow, Celtic won the tenth, they celebrated and we were disappointed,’ Smith told

The Football Show on Sky Sports. ‘They had great celebrations for one-in-a-row, that was it. It’s going to be that way next season. ‘Steven and the people that run Rangers will know that and hopefully they can have the same reaction as Celtic had to Rangers in doing that.’