Rangers blow as Zlatan Muslimovic trains with Sunderland

Published on Wednesday 25 January 2012 11:54

RANGERS’ hopes of signing Zlatan Muslimovic have been dealt a blow after the player spent yesterday training with Sunderland.

The Bosnia & Herzegovina striker trained with Rangers on Monday as the SPL champions look to bolster their squad before the transfer window closes next week. But it looks as though former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill could be about to scupper his old rivals, with agent Jan Bezemer reporting that his client spent yesterday with the Black Cats as he seeks a new club, following his summer departure from PAOK Salonika.

“Zlatan trained at Rangers (on Monday),” said Bezemer yesterday. “Everything was nice and we were interested. But now another offer has come in to train at another club. Zlatan trained at Sunderland today and we will now see how that works out. Zlatan had a very good feeling about Rangers. They are a very nice club, the trainer was a good man and he spoke very well.

“Rangers want him, but we have lots of interest in the player. He would like to play in a good league. The leagues in Scotland and England fall into that category.”

Muslimovic, 30, has scored 12 goals in 33 games for his country. Before joining PAOK he had a spell in Italy, first with Udinese – where he failed to make an impression and was loaned out to seven clubs, enjoying his most prolific spell at Rimini – and then Atalanta.

Meanwhile, David Healy hopes to return to goalscoring form when Hibernian visit Ibrox in the SPL on Saturday. The Rangers striker failed to find the net against Aberdeen in the 1-1 draw on Saturday and was just as annoyed that the champions slipped four points behind leaders Celtic.

“Saturday was frustrating,” he told Rangers’ official website. “I think it was one of those games that, if we had got the first goal, we would have scored three or four. But after we missed a few half-chances that gave Aberdeen’s confidence a boost.

“Of course I was disappointed not to score, I had a couple of opportunities and probably should have done better. But as a striker, you always want to get into positions to score goals, so hopefully I can be involved again against Hibs and I can get back on the scoresheet.”

Hibs will be without the suspended Garry O’Connor this weekend, but Healy believes the Leith side have another potential matchwinner in winger and fellow Northern Irishman Ivan Sproule.

He said: “They do have players that can cause problems. Sprouly scored a hat-trick at Ibrox in the past and I know he’s a Rangers fan and that he loves playing here. He’s got pace to burn and they have a new lad in Eoin Doyle, so they have decent players all over the pitch and we will need to be at our best to get the result we want.”