Rangers could go to Everton for one recruit in the final week of the transfer window.
Rangers have been linked with an Everton raid - and Kevin Thelwell’s influence on the deal would be clear as a day.
The Light Blues are in Belgium for the second leg of their Champions League play-off versus Club Brugge, trailing 3-1 from the first encounter at Ibrox last week. They look likely do some shopping in the striker market during the transfer window’s final week, as Hamza Igamane looks bound for Lille, and Cyriel Dessers is also linked with a move.
Girona’s Bojan Miovski has been rumoured as an option and Everton forward Youssef Chermiti is also said to be on the agenda. He signed for the Toffees in 2023 from Sporting Lisbon while Kevin Thewell was the club’s sporting director, and he’s now in that role at Rangers. Chermiti, still only 21, was part of David Moyes’ pre season plans but has not played a Premier League game yet.
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Kevin Thelwell on Youssef Chermiti
In total, he’s played 24 times for Everton but is yet to score, having found the net three times in 22 for Sporting Lisbon. Despite that record in Portugal, Chermiti revealed in a previous interview with the Athletic that Thelwell was the driving force behind his Everton move, in a show of how much the Rangers sporting director rates him, leaving his phone hot with calls.
He said: “Kevin (Thelwell) was phoning me every day saying: ‘Come to Everton as you will play and I will find you a good place.’ I liked the project. When you’re undecided, it’s good when the manager and director speak to explain it to you. It was tough to leave my country and my family. Everything was near to me — my friends and family. My family are still in Portugal. And everything moved quickly with Everton.”
Reviewing the summer window of 2023 where the forward arrived alongside Beto, Thelwell again laid bare his hopes for the man it is now claimed is wanted at Rangers. He said: “And then there are the two strikers we signed. We wanted to find one for the here and now and one for the future and we feel we have got that in Beto and Youssef Chermiti.
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“Youssef is not the finished article yet - and we shouldn’t expect that of a 19-year-old - but we believe he can help us right now. More importantly, he has all the attributes to develop into an Everton number nine.”
Everton boss at the time, Sean Dyche, also spoke highly of the forward but also made note that Chermiti was a raw product in need of nurturing. He said: "Youssef is a talented young striker who can add a different dimension to our squad. He is still a teenager who is learning his game, which we will be mindful of, but we think he has the raw talent and ingredients to be a very good player and that's why we are pleased to have signed him for Everton."
Thelwell added in that unveiling: “We are delighted to secure the signing of Youssef. He is a player we have been tracking for a long time. He is a talented striker with a lot to offer who showed his undoubted talent in Portugal last season with Sporting. Having turned 19 in May, there is plenty of room for Youssef to develop his game, too, and we are looking forward to him being a success with Everton for many years to come.”
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