Brahim Hemdani played his last game for Rangers last night after the club agreed a £1m transfer with Osasuna.
The French-Algerian had grown increasingly anxious to leave Ibrox and will head immediately to Spain despite hankering for a move to the Barclays Premier League. Middlesbrough, Fulham and Derby County had been sounded out but passed-up the opportunity to sign the midfielder owing to his lack of pace.
The deal with Osasuna will be completed in the next 24 hours. Hemdani joined Rangers on a Bosman in the summer of 2005 and has been an understated success in the holding midfield role. He won the club's player-of-the- year award last season for his consistency in what was an otherwise forgettable campaign.
Hemdani made 72 starts after signing from Marseille and played under Alex McLeish, Paul Le Guen and Walter Smith. Having originally struck up a rapport with Jose- Karl Pierre-Fanfan and Hamed Namouchi, Hemdani had grown increasingly detached from his team-mates even after the influx of French speakers under Le Guen and the latest batch, Daniel Cousin and Jean-Claude Darcheville, signed by Smith.
The signing of Kevin Thomson from Hibernian reduced the need for Hemdani's protective attributes in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and his recent omission from the domestic starting line-up deepened his desire to leave.
Smith will now turn his attention to signing a left back between now and the close of the transfer window. Dejan Stefanovic, the experienced Portsmouth full-back, is Smith's preferred option but he has also make tentative enquiries about George McCartney of West Ham.
Jean-Sebastien Juares, the 30-year-old Auxerre full-back, is another name on the radar, and would be available for a nominal fee. Rangers are also expected to make one last bid to sign Steven Naismith from Kilmarnock.
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