Glasgow Rangers are keen on bringing Bruno Alves to Ibrox, but is he Senderos Mk II?
Bruno Alves celebrates
Rangers are interested in signing Portuguese defender Bruno Alves, according to the Daily Record.
Alves has a big reputation, and in 2010 ago signed for Zenit St Petersburg from Porto for £19 million.
He repaid his suitors by helping them win the league in his first season, adding to four titles he had won in Portugal.
Cagliari’s Bruno Alves in action against Roma
Now Alves is 35, he will turn 36 in November, and Rangers may be signing a player who is simply past it.
Last summer the Gers brought in a player with a big reputation, Phillipe Senderos, and he turned out to be a complete disaster.
There were warning signs there, he had been released by Aston Villa previously, whereas Alves has just played 36 games this past season for Cagliari, but Rangers cannot afford another error.
Rangers’ Philippe Senderos looks dejected after being shown a second yellow card and sent off
In recent years foreign centre-backs have struggled at Ibrox, with Marius Zaliukas and Bilel Mohnsi two disastrous signings.
Mohnsi often was a walking red card. Alves is no stranger to controversy himself, wiping out Harry Kane with a wild challenge as Portugal took on England in a friendly last summer.
Portugal’s Bruno Alves fouls England’s Harry Kane before being sent off
Pedro Caixinha wants leaders in his side and Alves can be that, and at his best he was a fine defender who would have graced Ibrox.
Now the Gers’ financial situation means they are essentially feeding off scraps, and if they want to sign a player like Alves they must do so when he is past his best.
The defender has to prove that he is still good enough, and that Rangers are not making a mistake by failing to target a younger, if less experienced, player instead.
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