Rangers sign £30m Brighton striker and Fulham gem in blockbuster January transfer window prediction
Could Russell Martin’s Rangers launch a double raid on the Premier League when the transfer window opens in the new year?
You’d be hard-pressed to find a club in Britain that needs mid-season change in 2025/26 more than Rangers, as the 55-time Scottish champions sit eighth in the league with the pressure on new boss Russell Martin reaches boiling point.
So while we asked Grok to predict Rangers’ 2026 January transfer window, the AI itself admitted that it doesn’t believe Martin will be the manager by the start of February, putting his survival chances at “40/60”.
Despite losing to Genk last week and playing over 45 minutes with 10 men, Martin insisted the character of the squad is good, telling media including the Daily Mail: “We’re all together, I really feel that. Everyone’s been really together through this period. And, like I said, if we can get through this period, which I really believe we will, we’ll all be so much better for it.’
On the subject of his meeting with Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh after the latest defeat, Martin added: “The media love making out as if everyone is in a big conversation about ‘Is he going? Is he staying? What’s being said?’. But, generally, we chat about the football club, about what we can improve, about the performance, about the next game. We have a good conversation, honest conversation and it was the same again. So, there’s nothing out of the ordinary with that.”
Be that as it may, Rangers are currently enduring their worst start to the season in 47 years but their last gasp win over new boys Livingston did at least see them avoid the horrors of equalling their worst ever.
The good news is that Grok predicted Rangers to spend three times as much as Celtic when we put them through the AI - the depressing bit is that the reigning champions are already more than four times as good as The Gers based on the season so far.
Evan Ferguson heads trio of big-name arrivals
Evan Ferguson - £30 million from Brighton & Hove Albion - It’s a long way from the nine-figure valuations Brighton once had for the ‘next Harry Kane’, when he burst onto the scene as a teenager.
Ferguson has actually never even hit more than 10 goals in a season though did net six Premier League goals in less than a thousand minutes in 2022/23. Since then injuries have taken their toll while aged 20, Ferguson has already racked up 24 caps for Ireland and been forced to carry the hopes and dreams of a nation on his shoulders since breaking through at Brighton.
He went goalless at West Ham and is so far yet to score for Rangers on loan, having already played almost 300 minutes in the league and in Europe. However, dropping down a level from a top five league to the Scottish Premiership could give Ferguson a chance he never had to develop his game in a more rounded fashion and if he can, the results will be spectacular.
Harry Wilson - £15m from Fulham - Wilson has started three of Fulham’s five Premier League games so he’s certainly not been cast aside by Marco Silva but the Cottagers were prepared to send him to Leeds on deadline day until the deal collapsed last-minute.
Though an established winger, Wilson’s also played centrally for Fulham and elsewhere so his versatility and cerebral understanding of the game could be put to good use in attacking midfield to fill a void for Rangers.
Stalwart Tavernier finally moves on alongside unpopular Dowell
James Tavernier - £15m to Al-Ettifaq - Departing in January would mean Tavernier would just miss out on the chance to play his 600th game for Rangers but the Englishman is already in the top ten all-time appearances for The Gers and with his contract running out next summer, £15m would be a brilliant bounty for the club captain.
Al-Ettifaq have already filled their quota of eight foreign players over the age of 21, including Georginio Wijnaldum and one of Tavernier’s former Old Firm rivals Jack Henry, but they could certainly make space for the Englishman and would gain a full-back who’s scored 138 and assisted 147 goals.
Kieran Dowell - £2m to Norwich - Rangers fans may not be too disappointed to see the back of Dowell given how the booed him earlier this season as Martin prepared to bring the 27-year-old on as a substitute.
AI-predicted 2026 Rangers starting XI: All three signings go straight into the starting lineup for Rangers: Butland; Sterling, Propper, Souttar, Beck; Barron, Rasin; Cerny, Wilson, Matondo; Ferguson.