View: Rangers should make attacking midfielder transfer a summer priority

Elijah Just is a player that Rangers are reportedly monitoring ahead of a potential summer transfer move.

Whilst Danny Rohl and his team will be fully focused on the task at hand of winning the Scottish Premiership this season, Ibrox chiefs already have one eye on the summer.

Gers have their best chance of being crowned champions of Scotland this term perhaps since their last title win in 2020-21, and a 1-0 win over St Mirren last Sunday saw them close the gap to Hearts to three points.

Moving forward, the competitiveness at the top of the Premiership table looks to be only getting stronger, and so Rangers will know that a good summer transfer window is vital in the coming months.

How good has Elijah Just been for Motherwell this season?

Rangers scouts were spotted in Portugal last week, with Gers figures taking in Porto’s game against Moreirense last Sunday.

As such, it’s clear that work is already well under way at Ibrox ahead of the summer sales, and now a fresh name has been linked with a possible move to Gers.

According to a report from the Daily Record, Rangers are tracking Motherwell’s attacking midfielder Just, despite the 25-year-old only moving to Fir Park in this season’s summer window from Danish side AC Horsens.

Celtic have also been touted with an interest in the New Zealand international, but it’s believed that Andrew Cavenagh and the 49ers Enterprises are preparing an ambitious summer of spending ahead of next season.

Just has been superb for Motherwell this season, scoring seven times and providing six assists from 27 league appearances, and is a player that could sharpen Rangers’ cutting edge in attack significantly.

As per Sofascore, Just has created 10 big chances in the Premiership this season, is averaging 0.3 goals per game, takes an average of 53.1 touches per game and has a 79 per cent pass success rate.

He’s also recovering an average of 4.1 balls per game, has made zero errors leading to opposition shots or goals, plays 1.4 key passes per match and has four team of the week inclusions respectively.

Just would give Rangers a long-term attacker to build around

With Andreas Skov Olsen likely not yet doing enough to see his permanent option triggered by Rangers this summer, and with Mikey Moore set to return to Tottenham, Gers’ attack could undergo some big changes this summer.

Nedim Bajrami and Rabbi Matondo are likely exit candidates too, whilst Oliver Antman, Ryan Naderi, Djeidi Gassama and Bojan Miovski are all enduring inconsistent debut campaigns at Ibrox respectively.

Just, however, would hand Gers a cornerstone piece to build their attack of the future around, as he’s only just entering the prime of his career and is already proving himself to be a quality player at this level.

Even if Moore was to return for another loan spell, he’s probably not a viable long-term option for Rangers, but Just would be, and going off this season’s evidence, he probably would be an upgrade too.

Updated 24/7 with expert analysis from the heart of Govan.