Giovanni van Bronckhorst believes Amad Diallo’s price tag is irrelevant as he looks for his new loan player to make an impact at Rangers.
The highly-rated 19-year-old Ivory Coast international moved to Manchester United from Serie A side Atalanta a year ago, signing for a fee of 21million euros (£18.7million) that could reach 41m euros (£36.5m) with add-ons.
Diallo joined the cinch Premiership champions on Thursday until the end of the season and goes straight into the squad for the trip to Ross County on Saturday.
“The price tag is there but I don’t think we are looking at his price tag,” said the Light Blues boss, who will have Ryan Kent back from suspension and Joe Aribo back from international duty.
“I think, for him as well, it’s not a thing that he’s thinking about.
“He’s still a young player who wants to play games. You can feel it when you talk with him, the only place he wants to be is on the pitch.
“We are bringing him to this club to be a value for the team so he’s going to play but he’s part of the squad so he has to perform as well as any other player. I’m full of confidence that he will get that.
“I’m very excited. I think we started the talks with him and his agent on Monday.
“I’m very happy that he wanted to come to us for the remainder of the season.
“We were looking to add a player up front because we lost Ianis (Hagi) for the season so I’m really happy that we can bring in a player with his qualities and I’m sure he will give us a lot of strength in the coming months.”
Van Bronckhorst was coy when asked about the speculation that Rangers were looking to bring in 19-year-old midfielder James McAtee from Manchester City.
He said: “We’ve spoken with many players or possibilities we want to add. So far, I don’t have any news.
“The only news is that Amad is joining us so we’re still open and have to be ready for the last few days but I won’t confirm or talk about other names than players who are here and players we have signed.
“We can still do some business but I don’t know.
“Anything can happen, especially in the last days of the transfer window, sometimes it gets a little bit crazy.
“I hope, for us, it stays calm but you never know. We will see in a couple of days how our squad will be for the remainder of the season but I’m confident we will leave this window better than we started it.”
Van Bronckhorst gave some encouraging news to Scott Arfield, who returned from injury to come off the bench and score the winner in the 1-0 win over Livingston at Ibrox on Wednesday night.
The former Huddersfield and Burnley midfielder is out of contract at the end of the season.
The Gers boss said: “Scott has been really important for the team, not just this season but the seasons before this season as well.
“He’s an experienced player and he’s definitely a player I want to have longer at Rangers. Hopefully, we can welcome him next season as well.”
Meanwhile, Rangers have been fined around £16,000 by UEFA after their fans let off flares during their Europa League encounter against Lyon in France in December.
