Glasgow Rangers have been beaten in the race to bring Liverpool starlet Leighton Clarkson back to the Scottish Premiership after it was confirmed that he has returned to Aberdeen.
Who is Leighton Clarkson?
Clarkson is a midfielder and academy product at Anfield having worked his way up through the various youth ranks over the years, but in order to gain regular game time, he’s carried out two loans during his career, the first at Blackburn Rovers and last season at Aberdeen.
The Merseyside outfit’s gem has only ever made three senior appearances under Jurgen Klopp so he was clearly never going to make a significant breakthrough into the first-team any time soon, and with his contract also set to expire at the end of next term, his future lies away from his boyhood club.
Back in May, Football Insider credited the Light Blues with an interest in the 21-year-old and claimed that Michael Beale was a big admirer of the up-and-coming talent having worked with him previously, but a significant development has now been publicly announced, and he won’t be completing a summer switch to Ibrox.
Are Rangers signing Clarkson?
Taking to Twitter, Aberdeen confirmed through their social media channel that Clarkson had re-joined them on a permanent basis from Liverpool following his successful loan in 2022/23. They wrote:
"Leighton Clarkson has signed a four year-deal with the Dons, joining from Liverpool for an undisclosed fee. Welcome back Leighton."
Is Clarkson not joining a blow for Beale?
Rangers will know how much of a “technical” player (Josh Bunting) Clarkson is having faced him whilst on loan at Aberdeen, not to mention the existing connection he already has to Beale, so the defensive midfielder not joining is definitely a huge blow.
The Unique Sports Group client, who pockets £3k-per-week, averaged 2.2 tackles per league game last season and established himself as Barry Robson’s second top-performing defensive player, but he was arguably even more of a positive influence at the opposite end of the pitch in the final third.
The Adidas-sponsored ace clocked up 11 goal contributions (seven assists and four goals) in 29 Scottish Premiership outings which are impressive numbers for someone whose natural role is to sit in front of the backline, but the Gers boss will now have to turn his attention elsewhere and start focusing on who else he can target after falling short on this occasion.
