French cracks ‘to bid £4M+” for major Rangers target | OneFootball

Rangers fans might want to brace themselves. The excitement surrounding Lennon Miller, Motherwell’s prodigious young talent, has just skyrocketed, and not in a manner likely to please those who pack Ibrox on a regular basis. For starters, French club Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace have reportedly lodged an offer in excess of £4 million for the teenage midfielder. If he winds up swapping the Steelmen for the Ligue 1 side, it would appear a case of Rangers missing out on the kind of player they’ve often been accused of letting slip through their fingers in recent years while others claim the kudos—and count the cash.

Motherwell’s youth system has been churning out exceptional players recently, and Lennon Miller is a standout. He’s got the flair, the vision, and the kind of refuse-to-lose attitude that differentiates good players from truly great ones. If you’ve watched any of his performances this season, you’ve seen the kind of serious talent that makes you sit up and take notice. So when Strasbourg come calling with a £4 million-plus offer, you know it’s because they’ve seen something special too. And the real kicker here is that, reportedly, Rangers were interested but look set to lose out.

Clubs at the top of European football might consider £4 million to be small change, but in Scottish terms, and especially for Motherwell, this is not an insignificant sum of money. The fact that a club like Strasbourg is willing to pay that kind of money for Miller says a great deal about the faith they have in his potential. It also says a lot about how far the product of our indigenous game has come, in terms of making a reputation for itself. Yet why can’t Rangers or other top Scottish clubs make the kinds of deals that Strasbourg and other continental clubs seem to be able to make with ease?

Rangers have long prided themselves on acquiring local talent before anyone else catches wind of it—but this particular transfer feels like a missed chance wrapped up in the big dreams of a continental club. It’s almost a cliché to say that hesitation costs you possession on the pitch, but it’s absolutely true. It costs goals, and more than a few defensive linemen a secure place in the team. Would Miller thrive more under the bright French lights than he would at Ibrox? Strasbourg’s winning of this particular transfer battle adds a fascinating subplot to the ongoing saga involving Scottish football, which is a tale not just of nurturing homegrown talent but also of exporting that talent abroad.

Where do Rangers go from here? Double down on their scouting operations? Start looking under every rock for teenage geniuses? One thing’s for sure: If you’re going to sit at the top table in Scottish football and compete across Europe, you have to be able to attract young players like Lennon Miller and get them to sign on the dotted line. And if this episode becomes just another piece of evidence in the “Rangers are bad at recruiting” file that’s been opened in recent years, you have to wonder exactly how the club plans to turn that file around.