Rangers Pursue Josh Windass Again – Wrexham Holds All the Cards

Rangers have come calling for Josh Windass again. They know the route by now.

According to talkSPORT, the Ibrox club have formalised their interest in the Wrexham forward ahead of the summer window, the third serious attempt to bring him back to Glasgow. Windass made 73 appearances for Rangers between 2016 and 2018, left a mark, and clearly never quite left their thoughts.

This time, the chase has a familiar face at the front of it. New Rangers manager Danny Rohl is driving the move, leaning on a relationship forged at Sheffield Wednesday, where Windass flourished under his watch. Fifty goals under Rohl is a powerful reference on any CV, and exactly the kind of output a club plotting an attacking overhaul craves.

Rangers need that overhaul. A third-place finish in the Scottish Premiership, behind Celtic and Hearts, has sharpened minds in Govan. The forward line is being stripped back and rebuilt, and Windass is high on the list of preferred pillars. At the same time, the club are in advanced talks to sign Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland, a deal that underlines just how sweeping this attacking reset is intended to be.

But the story is not just about Rangers’ need. It’s about Wrexham’s resolve.

Windass has just been named Wrexham’s Player of the Season after a campaign that pushed his reputation onto a different level. Sixteen Championship goals – a club record at that level – and five assists across 41 league appearances tell the statistical tale. The broader picture is of a forward who carried threat, consistency and leadership through a season in which Wrexham brushed up against the Championship play-off places and started to look like they belonged in that company.

That kind of form changes a player’s market value, but it also hardens a club’s stance. Wrexham already showed their hand in January, when they rejected a formal mid-season approach from Rangers. The message then was clear: not now, not at that price. Nothing since has suggested their position has softened.

Windass himself has not been agitating for the exit. Speaking to talkSPORT earlier this month, he underlined his commitment to the project at the Racecourse Ground.

“Yeah, I signed a three-year deal in the summer,” he said. “I feel like I had a really good year this year, and yeah, hopefully next year we can go one better.”

Those are not the words of a player forcing the issue. They are the words of someone who sees momentum where he is. And Wrexham, with their Hollywood-backed ownership and rising profile, are not behaving like a club that needs to cash in.

The contract situation only strengthens their hand. Windass is tied down until 2028, giving the Red Dragons enormous leverage in any negotiation. There is no looming deadline, no ticking clock that usually drives a fee down. If Rangers want him, they will have to pay for the privilege.

For now, transfer specialist Ben Jacobs reports that formal club-to-club negotiations have not yet begun. The interest is real, the admiration long-standing, but the hard bargaining has not started. When it does, it will pit a club desperate to close the gap on their greatest rivals against an ambitious, upwardly mobile side intent on keeping their talisman for their own push.

Rangers’ pursuit of Shankland runs alongside this, a parallel track that underlines the scale of their response to finishing behind Celtic and Hearts. They are not tinkering; they are tearing up and starting again at the top end of the pitch. Windass, with his history at Ibrox and proven numbers under Rohl, fits that vision perfectly.

Wrexham see him differently. To them, he is not a luxury. He is the spearhead of a team that believes it can turn a “narrow gap” to the Championship play-offs into a place in the end-of-season shootout next year. Letting him go on the cheap would cut across everything the club’s ownership have been building.

So the stage is set. A manager reunited with a trusted goalscorer if the price is right, a former club trying to right a disappointing season, and a rising side determined not to be raided on the way up.

Rangers have made their move. Now we find out just how much Wrexham’s ambition really costs.