Standard Liege sporting director Fergal Harkin vows the transfer situation that allowed Rangers to sign Nicolas Raskin will “never” happen again.
The Belgian star made a cut price move to Ibrox on deadline day in January after it became clear he wasn’t going to sign a new deal with Liege, where his contract was due to expire in the summer. Former Celtic boss Ronny Deila rated the midfielder, but ended up freezing him out with the Belgian Pro League club needing to find a suitor during the window to avoid losing him for nothing in the summer.
Michael Beale was only too happy to sign him up on a long-term contract at Ibrox. Raskin joined Todd Cantwell as Beale’s two winter additions and made his debut against Ross County before being handed a first start in the Scottish Cup fifth-round win over Partick Thistle at the weekend.
Moroccan international Selim Amallah was in a similar situation to Raskin. He joined La Liga side Real Valladolid, with the two departures netting Standard around €4million in transfer fees. But Harkin insists the club can’t allow contracts of their star men to run down like that again if they are to be serious about reinvesting in the squad.
"For Raskin and Amallah, we found a solution to a serious problem,” he told the club’s website. “We could not reach an agreement to keep them for the long term, so it was necessary to find a way out in January. Considering the cards we were dealt, we're very happy with the conclusions to that and we move on. We should never be in a situation again that two of our most important players have expiring contracts.”
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