Brighton have agreed to give Abdallah Sima’s move to Rangers their blessing - but will not rubber stamp a deal to let him leave on a cut price permanent transfer next summer.
Record Sport understands the 22-year-old is expected to complete a medical and then sign a season long loan deal in Glasgow in the next 24 hours. The fine details of the agreement were being thrashed out between the clubs late on Wednesday afternoon even though any hope Michael Beale may have had of ultimately landing Sima on a long term contract have been killed off by the Premiership club.
Beale has previously expressed a reluctance to tap into the temporary transfer market or hire quick fixes as he looks to lay the foundations for a major rebuild during his first summer in charge. But, so highly does he rate Sima, that he is prepared to make an exception to his own rule in order to secure the services of the Senegal international.
The Ibrox club struck a deal with Bayern Munich a year ago to bring in Malik Tillman on a similar short term deal but also negotiated an exclusive option to buy the American outright for a price of around £5m. And that agreement was ripped up following Tillman’s impressive 12 month stay in Scotland, at the end of which he was voted the country’s young player of the year.
It’s been widely reported that the Bundesliga giants have had to shell out a compensation sum of around £1m to Rangers in order to cancel that arrangement and look to bring in top dollar for Tillman on the open market. And Brighton have no intention of making the same costly mistake where Sima is concerned, even though the attacker has yet to make his debut on the south coast, two years after joining for around £7m from Slavia Prague.
That deal, which was sanctioned by former Amex boss Graham Potter, came shortly after Sima had starred against Steven Gerrard’s Ibrox side in both legs of a controversial Europa League knock-out tie in March 2021. And the player clearly left a lasting impression on Beale who watched on from Gerrard’s dugout.
But Sima has failed to win over Potter’s successor Roberto De Zerbi who has confirmed the youngster will, once again, be surplus to his requirements after spending the last two seasons farmed out to Stoke and French outfit Angers.
Beale, De Zerbi and Brighton are now banking on Sima rediscovering his blistering top form by spending a year in Scotland’s top flight and competing once again on the European stage. Meanwhile, Polish right-back Mateusz Zukowski has returned to his homeland to sign for Slask Wrocław.
