Rangers have completed the signing of Ross McCrorie on a three-year deal from Bristol City.
The Rangers Review exclusively revealed on Tuesday evening that the club were in the final stages of agreeing a deal to bring the versatile 28-year-old back to Ibrox.
McCrorie came through the academy alongside his brother Robbie at Ibrox and made his debut for the club in 2017. He would go on to feature regularly in the early stages of Steven Gerrard’s tenure before leaving to join Portsmouth and then Aberdeen on loan, where he worked under new Rangers manager Derek McInnes.
A permanent move to Pittodrie followed in 2021 before the two-time Scotland cap moved south to join Bristol City.
Playing predominantly as a right-back or right wing-back in England, having also operated in midfield during his time at Rangers, McCrorie made 98 appearances for the Championship outfit.
He has now agreed terms on a deal worth up to £1.5 million, with Rangers understood to be paying an initial £900,000 to make him the second signing of the summer.
He is expected to compete with Dujon Sterling for the right-back slot next season following James Tavernier’s exit last month. The former captain, who spent 11 years at the club, chose to leave at the end of last season with no new deal on the horizon.
McCrorie said: “It is a dream come true to come back up the road to the team I support.
“I am not that little kid who was at Rangers back in the day. I have changed a lot character-wise, and player-wise, I feel I have changed massively.
“I feel like I am ready now, and I want to come back here and win trophies."
Derek McInnes commented: “Ross is someone I signed for Aberdeen from Rangers, and at that time he wanted to go out and prove himself, which I think says a lot for him.
“He has developed and improved as a player, he has got that added experience, he is a full international now, and he knows the club inside out.
“In the conversations I have had with him, a lot of things I am saying are things he wants from the club as well, so he's a determined and competitive boy on the pitch, and he is determined to bring good times back to the club.”
As reported yesterday, Hull City and Atalanta are among the clubs exploring a move for in-demand Nico Raskin, who is currently at the World Cup with Belgium and entering the final two years of his contract at Ibrox.
Discussing how the club’s transfer strategy will work moving forward at his unveiling press conference, McInnes explained that it will remain a “modern” approach in his new role, despite his title being manager rather than head coach, with the final say resting with him.
He said: “I don’t think it’s a committee, but it’s a modern way of doing things. What we’ve got is a recruitment team that will liaise with us constantly.
“We identify the key positions that we feel we need to fill. Within that, there are conversations and work to be done. The first port of call is affordability and accessibility. There’s no point in fishing in ponds where we’re not going to be able to bring players in and waste too much time.
Read more:
- Rangers academy standouts who could take chance and impress McInnes this pre-season
- Inside Derek McInnes' Rangers deal: How transfers will work, Club DNA, story of move
“So we quickly arrive at a list of players that we can get. Then, along with Jim (Gillespie), Stig (Bjørnebye) and Dan (Purdy), we try to arrive at the best option for us financially and, more importantly, in terms of what the player can bring.
“Age and everything else are all part of it. Not every player needs to be a young player for development, and I think we understand that. There’s a model there that we want to adhere to.
“But I’ve been given assurances that every player we sign will come down to me — the final decision. So it’s a collaboration, really, with like-minded people having conversations on a daily basis, trying to arrive at the best option for us.”
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