Steven Gerrard explains why Rangers made no early move for Nnamdi Ofoborh

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has revealed why he did not attempt to accelerate the signing of Bournemouth midfielder Nnamdi Ofoborh.

Nnamdi Ofoborh, who will join Rangers at the end of this season, in action for Bournemouth against Jordan Ayew of Crystal Palace during an English League Cup tie last September. (Photo by Neil Hall - Pool/Getty Images)

The 21-year-old has signed a pre-contract agreement with the Ibrox club and will arrive in June on a four-year deal.

In the closing hours of the transfer window on Monday, Rangers successfully advanced similar agreements with central defender Jack Simpson, a team-mate of Ofoborh at Bournemouth, and attacking midfielder Scott Wright from Aberdeen.

But while Gerrard is pleased to add Simpson and Wright to his squad for the rest of this season, he saw no value in doing the same with Ofoborh who instead has joined English Championship side Wycombe Wanderers on loan for the second half of the campaign.

“Nnamdi’s situation was slightly different to the other two boys,” explained Gerrard. “In the midfield area, we are fighting for numbers right now so there wasn’t really a rush or need to push that one through.

“But I’m really pleased he has gone to Wycombe to play games. He wasn’t getting much game time at Bournemouth so there was a slight concern that he might have missed half a season when he joined up with us in the summer.

“So for him to go to Wycombe, he will be in a better place when he comes. He’s another talent we are really looking forward to working with.

“But there was no point in us bringing him here just now because we’ve got two players in each position in the three midfield areas who are all doing well.

“Scott Arfield is due to return from injury in the coming days. With Jordan Jones and Brandon Barker both going out on loan in the window, it was important we got the Scott Wright deal done so we are okay in the forward positions.

“George Edmundson also had a loan opportunity he wanted to explore at Derby because he wanted game time, he’s had a frustrating season. We respected that.

“So it’s important that we have four strong centre-half options and I’m really pleased with how it has worked out there (with bringing Jack Simpson in).”

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