Scottish Premiership champions Rangers appear to have won the race to sign Charlton Athletic midfielder Joe Aribo.
Joe Aribo is expected to tell Charlton Athletic that he wants to leave the club during talks with manager Lee Bowyer on Friday, as he closes in on a move to Rangers, according to the Evening Standard.
The 22-year-old midfielder was one of The Addicks’ stand out performers as Bowyer lead them back to the Championship via a dramatic play-off final victory against Sunderland at Wembley.
He scored 10 goals in all competitions from central midfield while catching the eye of a whole host of clubs in both England and Scotland. The Evening Standard reports that Celtic are interested but Aribo is set to join their Old Firm rivals Rangers instead.
This comes after The Daily Mail (17 June, page 78) claimed that he was set to become one of Rangers’ best paid players on around £20,000 a week.
And though Bowyer has not given up hope of keeping a midfielder who had been compared to a young Patrick Vieira, the Standard claims that Aribo will likely inform the Charlton boss that he is keen to make the switch to Ibrox when they hold a face-to-face meeting on Friday.
Aribo is expected to become Rangers’ latest signing in a busy transfer window and he could form a terrific midfield partnership alongside the similarly dynamic Ryan Jack and Glen Kamara.
The report adds that Rangers will pay Charlton a compensation fee of £250,000.
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