Chermiti Injury Hits Rangers Hard as Driouech Transfer Nears

Rangers’ summer took a brutal twist at Ibrox on Sunday. Their most valuable asset left the ground in a boot and knee brace. Hours after the club knocked back a major offer from Galatasaray, Youssef Chermiti suffered an ACL injury that will rule him out for “a significant period of time”.

The 22-year-old went down in the first half of the defeat to Hibernian after a heavy collision with the pitchside boards. The stadium fell flat as soon as he hit the deck. The stretcher followed, and with it the sense that this was more than just another early-season setback.

For Derek McInnes, still searching for his first win as Rangers manager after three games, it was a double punch: a damaging league loss and the loss of the striker around whom so much of the club’s planning has quietly revolved.

“I thought he was looking bright and running gaps,” McInnes said afterwards. “He played with a bit of purpose and there’s no doubt we missed that, but he’s left in a boot and his knee in a brace.”

The frustration was obvious. So was the underlying reality: Rangers have just lost the player they can least afford to be without.

From £10m project to marquee asset

Chermiti arrived from Everton last summer in a deal worth up to £10m, a sizeable outlay for a player still developing. He repaid that faith quickly. Fifteen goals and five assists across all competitions last season turned him from a promising signing into the club’s attacking reference point.

Those numbers, and his age, explain why the Ibrox hierarchy now rate him above the record fee received for Calvin Bassey, who joined Ajax for an initial £19.6m in 2023. When Galatasaray came calling with big money, Rangers said no. The message was clear: this was a striker to build around, not to cash in on.

“It’s no surprise that he’s a player who’s got a big tag on him and he’s got high potential,” McInnes said. “But thankfully he’s our player and that will continue to be the case.”

Now that “case” changes. The asset remains, but the availability disappears, and with it a large slice of Rangers’ cutting edge.

Recruitment drive intensifies

The timing of the injury collides with an already aggressive recruitment push. Rangers have made nine signings this summer, and the conveyor belt is not slowing.

A £6.5m deal is in place for winger Couhaib Driouech from PSV Eindhoven, with the 21-year-old completing his medical and paperwork ahead of a move to Ibrox. Burnley and Celta Vigo both tried to tempt him, but Rangers have won that race.

Driouech brings end product. Twelve goals in 61 games for PSV, three of them in the Champions League last season, plus 10 assists, mark him out as more than just another wide prospect. Born in Holland, shaped at Heerenveen and Excelsior, and capped by Morocco at U23 level, he fits the profile Rangers have chased: young, technical, with resale value and room to grow.

The need for that kind of attacking thrust has only sharpened with Chermiti’s absence. Driouech was coming anyway; now the expectation around him will only swell.

Defence next on the agenda

If the forward line has dominated headlines, the backline sits high on the to-do list. At the club’s shareholder meeting on Monday, chairman Andrew Cavenagh confirmed Rangers intend to add between three and five more players before the window shuts.

The defence is firmly in that conversation. Scotland’s transfer deadline of 5pm on September 3 looms, and Rangers are already deep into options.

Aston Villa right-back Kosta Nedeljkovic has emerged as a possible signing after initial talks. Hugo Siquet of Club Brugge is also under consideration. On the opposite flank, former Hearts left-back James Penrice, now at AEK in Greece, has been discussed as another potential addition.

This is not tinkering around the edges. It is a structural rebuild, accelerated by results and now complicated by injury.

A pivotal stretch for McInnes

Three games, no wins, and now the loss of his main striker: McInnes’ start at Ibrox could hardly be more demanding. The Hibernian defeat exposed fragility. Chermiti’s injury threatens to expose depth.

Rangers will lean on the market, on Driouech’s arrival, on new faces in defence, and on the belief that their valuation of Chermiti will be vindicated once he returns. But seasons can tilt on moments like a collision with the boards on an otherwise ordinary afternoon.

The rebuild is in motion. The question now is whether Rangers can keep pace with their own ambition while their most prized forward watches it unfold from the treatment room.