Southampton: Rangers keen on Steven Davis reunion
By Marc Walker
Rangers are keen to re-sign Southampton midfielder Steven Davis six years after the Northern Ireland international switched Ibrox for St Mary’s.
According to skysports, the Glasgow club will look to bring the 33-year-old back to the Scottish Premier League to play under new boss Steven Gerrard this summer if they can come to an agreement with Southampton.
Davis joined the Saints for around £800,000 ahead of their first season back in the English top-flight in 2012 after Rangers were forced to sell due to financial difficulties.
Since then, he has made 220 appearances on the South Coast and contributed with 14 goals and 25 assists from midfield. In recent times however, his game-time has been limited by both injuries and other players being in favour.
He was made club-captain in 2016 and has skippered the Saints on a number of occasions last season as he played 25 times across all competitions.
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101 caps for Northern Ireland also means that he is seen as something of a legend in his homeland and he currently sits in third place on their all-time appearances list.
Davis knows Rangers well having spent four years in Scotland from 2008, and originally joined on-loan from Fulham. He made exactly 200 appearances for the Gers and mentioned his potential desire to re-join the club back in 2015 in an interview with the Daily Record.
He was joined in exiting Ibrox by fellow first-team regulars Kyle Lafferty and Steven Naismith, and their transfer raised some vital funds that helped to sustain the club’s future.
The signing of Stuart Armstrong from Celtic earlier this week will likely fill Davis’ space in Mark Hughes’ squad and add different qualities too.
Davis has played a number of positions in his time at Saints. He has been used as a defensive midfielder and in attacking roles too but is probably best suited to a system that incorporates a box-to-box player.
Despite his excellent service to the club, a move for the player at this stage of his career would make sense and would also free up space for other players to contribute more in 2018/19.