I disagree with the idea that this boy is a lost cause. There are far too many good football people around the game who clearly think he is a proper player for that to be true.

He is getting games for Portugal Under-21s and playing alongside highly-rated youngsters like Carlos Forbs and Roger Fernandes, who are being talked about at big values. If the Portugal setup keeps picking him at that level, he must be doing something right. That is not me or you making that call, it is people who make a living out of spotting talent.

Price tag, pressure and a late breakthrough

He is not performing for us just now and nobody is denying that. But you have to look at the context. The fee we are all talking about has put a huge spotlight on him, and he has never really been a consistent starter for any club until now. That combination can weigh on a player, especially at Rangers where there is no hiding place.

If we keep creating the volume of chances we have been, the numbers will turn. When you are racking up something like 30-odd efforts in a game, the forwards will eventually start putting more away, and with goals comes confidence. Sometimes it only takes one to go in off your shin and suddenly everything looks different.

The alternative is brutal: we lose patience, move him on and effectively accept a huge hit on the fee. If the figure being mentioned is around £8m, that is not a small mistake to write off. For a club like Rangers, you cannot just shrug that away.

Agency chat and the money side of it

There has also been a bit of noise about supposed links through his dad and agencies, but that does not really stack up either. His father had, and still has, no meaningful links in that sense. The 49ers ownership group have done business with CAA, the agency mentioned, but that is just how modern football and sport work. Big agencies are involved everywhere.

To be honest, I cannot see the financial sense in the kind of theory that gets thrown around. Why would anyone pay a club like Everton, as an example, £8m purely so that another company can pick up a 15 percent agency commission? All that would actually do is leave the buying side taking a hit of around £6.8m on the deal just to feed an agent. It makes no business sense at all when you look at the numbers properly.

Patience over panic at Ibrox

So it really comes down to this. We either show a bit of patience with a young player who clearly has pedigree and backing from serious football people, or we throw our hands up early and lock in a massive loss.

Rangers have been burned before by giving up on players too quickly and watching them kick on elsewhere. In this case, backing the talent we have already invested heavily in looks a lot more sensible than jumping to the exit door just because the first spell has been underwhelming.

Written by Angus1812 — 5 December 2025