
AEK Athens to 'contact' Rangers AGAIN over Dessers transfer
Russell Martin yesterday revealed that the Ibrox club had rejected a bid from an unnamed club for last season's top goalscorer. It's believed that the offer was from AEK.
Now, according to renowned journalist Giannis Chorianopoulos, the European outfit - who have just signed James Penrice from Hearts - will look to make another bid.
He wrote on X: "AEK Athens will contact again Rangers for Cyriel Dessers.
"But Greek club are now considering some other striker options."
"Cyriel has just been injured," Martin said after Rangers' 2-2 draw with Club Brugge on Sunday. "He's had a bit of a niggly ankle, so he's here today.
"We turned down a bid a while ago for him that was nowhere near the valuation of the football club, and he's been great, he's desperate to train.
"We've had to give him some treatment this week on his, on his ankle since he's been back. But I'm looking forward to working with him.
"So, that's just nowhere near happening and hopefully, he will get on the training pitch this week, well, he will, and he'll start enjoying it.
"But he's not kicked up one moment of fuss. He seems a really good professional and from what everyone tells me here, he is."

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Daily Mirror
14 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Goliath to miss £1.5m King George defence with major US race targeted instead
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The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Genesis Scottish Open goes from strength to strength
After a couple of initial stagings at Gleneagles and Belleisle in Ayr, the 1937 edition, scheduled to take place the week before that season's Open at Carnoustie and at a venue in the local vicinity, was cancelled. 'I was told that the Royal & Ancient club would not allow the tournament to be played just before The Open in the same neighbourhood,' said the Scottish Open organiser A E Penfold, the heid honcho of that ye olde ball manufacturing company of the same name, in a report scribbled in The Glasgow Herald at the time. These days, of course, the prized slot in the schedule the week before The Open is so cherished it's just about protected by the National Trust for Scotland. With the 1937 event kiboshed, the Scottish Open would be lost in the long grass for years and didn't re-emerge until 1972 during the first official season of the European – now DP World - Tour. Downfield in Dundee was the host venue and Sunbeam Electric, the household appliance company that manufactured a snazzy array of food mixers, waffle irons and toasters, was the sponsor. Neil Coles, that indefatigable campaigner who was once likened to an 'amiable archdeacon', was certainly a merry old soul after landing the first prize of £2000. His better half was quite chipper too. 'When I used to come off the course, I'd ring my wife and say, 'I've won' and she'd always ask, 'how much?'' reflected Coles, who won professional titles across six different decades during a career of magnificent longevity. The Scottish Open's resurrection didn't last long, however. In 1974, it was binned as organisers couldn't agree a television deal. By the time it was dug out again in 1986, you half expected the event to reek of mothballs. The Glasgow Classic, which had been held at Haggs Castle on the city's southside from 1983 to 1985, was rebranded as the Bell's Scottish Open and the Dear Green Place would provide, well, the green shoots of recovery for a championship that could've withered on the vine. In 1986, the colourful, yet troubled, Northern Irishman, David Feherty, walked off with the trophy. He lost the bloomin' thing too. Amid boisterous celebrations, the well-documented story goes that he woke up 48 hours later at Gleneagles, apparently after a shindig with members of rock band Led Zeppelin. 'The worst part was that the trophy was gone,' recalled Feherty. 'To this day, I have no idea how I lost it or when I lost it. And it was never found.' They dug out another clump of silverware for the Scottish's Open popular eight-year residency at Gleneagles, which started in 1987. During that prolonged stint, the jewel in the Glen was undoubtedly Peter O'Malley's victory over the King's course in 1992. 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Keen to provide players with a links test the week before The Open, title sponsors Barclays and the tour moved the championship north to the modern links of Castle Stuart in 2011. It was quite the baptism of fire. Or water to be precise. A quite ridiculous, and freakishly localised, storm caused utter chaos on the Saturday and led to landslides on the course which had to be cleared by diggers. Even the hapless golf writers at the pre-championship media day didn't wreak such chaos. The championship was cut to 54-holes. It wasn't the only thing to be chopped. After the 2011 staging, Barclays ended its 10-year relationship and there were genuine concerns that the Scottish Open would not survive. That slot, the week before The Open, was always a much sought after date and there were vultures hovering. The late Alex Salmond's Scottish Government, together with the clout of Aberdeen Asset Management, gave it financial security and a platform upon which it would thrive. "He (Salmond) was the one who got us into the Scottish Open," said Martin Gilbert, the former chief executive of the Aberdeen group during a chinwag with this correspondent and his colleagues many years ago. "Without his financial support there is no doubt that the Scottish Open would have gone.' But look at it now? With the strongest field in global golf outside the four majors, the Genesis Scottish Open continues to go from strength to strength. Many happy returns, indeed.


Scotsman
an hour ago
- Scotsman
'Very impressed' - Luke Donald's verdict on Bob MacIntyre stepping up Ryder Cup bid
European captain had been tracking Scot's stats before his US Open runner-up finish Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Luke Donald, the European Ryder Cup captain, was confident US Open runner-up Bob MacIntyre had a big performance in him in the battle to be on his team at Bethpage Black after closely watching his stats this season. MacIntyre, who made a winning debut in the biennial match under Donald's captaincy in Rome in 2023, jumped into one of the six automatic spots up for grabs on Long Island in September after finishing second to J.J. Spaun in the season's third major at Oakmont last month. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The eye-catching effort came at the perfect time for MacIntyre, who will now be looking to cement his position in the standings when he defends the Genesis Scottish Open title this week before heading back to Royal Portrush, where he tied for sixth on his major debut six years ago, for the The 153rd Open next week. Bob MacIntyre is congratulated by Jon Rahm after winning his singles in the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome | Getty Images 'Very impressed,' said Donald, speaking ahead of the first of those events at The Renaissance Club, of how MacIntyre has performed since Italy, where he leaned on Justin Rose in his opening match before going on to pick up two-and-a-half points from three, including a singles success against Wyndham Clark, the US Open champion at the time. 'I think he's really adapted his game to the US. Obviously, when you make that transition from playing mostly in Europe to playing over there, it is more difficult. The fields are deeper. It's harder. But he was still very consistent and I was watching his stats quite a lot. 'Even from when he qualified in Rome to where he was before the second place in the US Open, his stats were quite a bit better. He's been very consistent. As I said, it's harder to break out in the US and win tournaments. He already won twice last year. He won in Canada and won here. 'As I said, I saw the improvement in statistics and it was only a matter of time before he had a really, really good week and he almost pulled it off.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Does Donald, who is bidding to join Tony Jacklin as the only European captain to win home and away against the Americans, see a maturity in MacIntyre, both as a player and a person? 'Well, hopefully the Ryder Cup in Rome had a positive effect on him,' added the world No 1. 'I've seen it go both ways. Sometimes people play Ryder Cups and they understand that maybe they're not quite good enough to be a part of what a Ryder Cup represents. 'But I think Bob, even though he didn't quite have his best game on Friday and was really fighting to find it, especially on the greens, he got a lot out of it. Two and a half points out of three. I think it helped him really grow as a golfer and give him the belief that he could perform with the very best.' Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka are the others in automatic Ryder Cup spots heading into this week's $9 million Rolex Series event. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad European captain Luke Donald and his players, including Bob MacIntyre, pose with the Ryder Cup following their win in Rome in 2023 |Rasmus Hojgaard, Ludvig Aberg, Justin Rose, Viktor Hovland, Thomas Detry and Matt Wallace are next on the points list as the qualifying race enters the closing stretch, with Donald set to announce his team on 1 September. 'Two massive weeks, the two biggest weeks left really before qualification ends,' said Donald of the Genesis Scottish Open and The Open. 'There's obviously five or six weeks left to go. These are big weeks against the strongest fields so you want to see the top guys play well and there's obviously going to be some guys that are pretty much staked a claim for their place already in the team. But there's a few spots definitely open and these weeks are big for those guys.' Is he braced for some sleepless nights towards the end of the qualification period? 'Maybe,' he said with a smile. 'The week of the Ryder Cup will be plenty of sleepless nights. I think having gone through it already once, I feel pretty comfortable where we are with the preparation.