Rangers Sign Kevin Kelsy & Badredine Bouanani: Can They Help Close the Gap on Celtic?
Derek McInnes went into deadline day still short of the attacking depth he wanted, and by 5pm he'd fixed both problems at once. Kevin Kelsy, a £9.6m striker signed from Portland Timbers, is already through the door.
Badredine Bouanani, the Stuttgart winger who looked set for a Strasbourg loan just two days earlier, had his Ibrox medical on the morning of 3 September instead, with a loan-with-option-to-buy deal reported to be close.
Rangers sit fifth after four Premiership games, five points off leaders Celtic, with a stuttering start that's included two European exits inside a fortnight. McInnes needed the window to end with statements, not stopgaps.
He got a £9.6m striker who's second only to Tore Andre Flo on Rangers' all-time transfer list, and a winger Stuttgart paid £13m for just twelve months ago.
Neither arrival guarantees anything - but both go straight into a squad that's been thin exactly where these two play.
Whether it's the title race or the fight to avoid the drop, the Scottish Premiership delivers betting interest right through the season - compare our top betting sites and check today's free bet offers.
What Kelsy & Bouanani Actually Add
Kelsy's signing solves a specific problem: Youssef Chermiti's season-ending injury left Rangers without a senior focal point up front for the best part of a month.
The 22-year-old Venezuela international is 6ft 4in, left-footed, and scored 16 goals in 43 MLS appearances for Portland before Rangers agreed the fee.
That's a genuine centre-forward, not a squad filler, and McInnes has been explicit that replacing Chermiti's presence, not just his goals, was the priority.
Bouanani is a different kind of gap-filler.
A left-footed right winger, he came through Lille's academy before making his name at Nice, then joined Stuttgart for around £13m last summer.
He's barely played this season in the Bundesliga, capped at five appearances for Algeria and once called into their World Cup squad without featuring.
He's already faced both halves of the Old Firm: he scored for Nice in a 4-1 defeat to Rangers, and started for Stuttgart when Celtic knocked them out of Europe last season.
If the loan goes through, Rangers get a 21-year-old with senior European experience and a point to prove after a season on the bench in Germany.
Put together with the earlier signings of Kim Min-su and Daisuke Yokota, McInnes now has four fresh attacking options who've arrived since July.
That's the volume of investment that's supposed to change a season, not just top up a squad.
Rangers Scottish Premiership Odds
Celtic remain the runaway favourites to retain the title, which is hardly surprising given they've won all four games and boast a goal difference nine better than anyone else in the league.
Rangers are next in the market, although they sit some way behind Celtic and only just ahead of Hearts.
A five-point gap is certainly recoverable this early in September.
The bigger question is whether two new arrivals, one of whom hasn't played a competitive minute since April, can make an immediate impact and help Rangers close the gap.
Can Two Deadline-Day Signings Close the Gap on Celtic?
The case for optimism: Rangers have lost their focal point in Youssef Chermiti and their manager has now been given his replacement plus a right-sided winger to relieve pressure on Findlay Curtis and Ross McCausland.
If Kelsy starts scoring in October and Bouanani rediscovers the form that got him a World Cup call-up with Algeria, the gap to Celtic is exactly the kind of margin a hot six weeks erases.
The case against: both players need time to adapt to a new league, a new manager and, in Bouanani's case, a first real run of games since last spring.
Rangers have already been knocked out of Europe twice this season, by Jagiellonia Bialystok and FK Jablonec, and a squad that's still bedding in five-plus new signings doesn't usually turn a five-point gap around by matchday ten.
McInnes will be judged on how quickly Kelsy and Bouanani actually get minutes, not on the fee.
