Fashion Sakala’s Rangers future is unclear as the attacker expects talks with manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst ‘any time soon’.
The Gers swooped to sign Sakala on a free transfer last summer as his contract with Belgian side Oostende came to its conclusion.
Sakala had hit 16 goals across all competition in his final season with Oostende with Rangers hoping to see him replicate that success.
The Zambian did play 50 games in all competitions last season and managed 12 goals in a solid if unspectacular first season at Ibrox.
Fast and versatile, Sakala can be exciting but his end product has sometimes left Rangers fans a little frustrated.
Fashion Sakala’s Rangers future is unclear
Sakala may have only been at Ibrox for a year, but his future is already looking a little murky.
Reports in France suggested that Auxerre would like to sign Sakala after securing promotion to Ligue 1.
Former Rangers and Auxerre ace Lionel Charbonnier even claimed that he heard Sakala to Auxerre was on the cards.
Rangers have also brought in a host of attacking signings with Rabbi Matondo, Tom Lawrence, Malik Tillman and Antonio Colak all joining.
That means Sakala has been pushed down the pecking order and he was an unused substitute against Livingston on Saturday afternoon.
The Zambian may well be a bit-part player at Rangers this season – and that seemingly isn’t to his liking.
Sakala has told the Daily Record that he is ‘very happy’ at Rangers and doesn’t want to leave on loan after 12 goals last season.
Yet Sakala did note that playing for a big club like Rangers and sitting on the bench isn’t really good enough.
Sakala added that Van Bronckhorst has told his agent that he is still wanted at Ibrox, but will hold direct talks with the Rangers boss very soon to thrash out his future with Sakala seemingly unsure about his own future.
“Obviously I am very happy to be here,” said Sakala. “All this talk about loans? I don’t think I can go on loan. I am not looking at loan moves. There is no need for me to go on loan because my first season was not bad. I scored 12 goals in all competitions and that was my adaptation season. Now I have to prepare myself to do better this season.”
“If I hadn’t got the chance last season or if I had not scored a single goal then I would have said: ‘Okay, I need to make a move, I need to go’. Because for me, I can be here at this big club, but if I am not playing then it does not mean anything. Last season was okay. It could have been better, but I was mostly on the bench and coming on all the time is difficult. I think players understand that to do so is not easy. When you do that, the game is on another level and rhythm is not the same.”
“I haven’t had a meeting with him (Van Bronckhorst). But I think they had a meeting with my manager and he said he wants me, he wants me to be part of the club. I am expecting a meeting any time soon and I hope to hear his views. This is something I am looking forward to because we are starting a competition and I want to know where I am standing because I don’t know at the moment,” he added.
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