Rangers have signed Vaclav Cerny on a season-long loan from Wolfsburg - their sixth new arrival of the summer. This article was published on Friday morning, prior to official confirmation of the move.

Rangers’ transfer window is gathering pace with a number of incomings and outgoings expected imminently.

Philippe Clement confirmed a fortnight ago that the Ibrox outfit must sell to fund the arrival of players who’ve already agreed in principle to join the club. With Connor Goldson, Sam Lammers and Todd Cantwell all set to depart and James Tavernier the subject of a bid from Trapbonszpor, those arrivals appear imminent.

READ MORE: Check all the Rangers transfer news & rumours before the transfer window

One player who’s in advanced talks over a move to Glasgow is Vaclav Cerny. As the Rangers Review wrote yesterday, the 26-year-old winger is a player Clement and recruitment head Nils Koppen admire, with a loan deal from Wolfsburg close to completion.

Cerny, who was part of the Czech Republic squad at Euro 2024, spent a large percentage of his youth career at Ajax and two seasons at Utrecht before a three-year stint at FC Twente. A move from the Eredivisie to Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg last summer hasn’t materialised as hoped.

Having worked with new Rangers assistant Andries Ulderink and played alongside forward Danilo for Jong Ajax and Twente, Cerny is a profile known within the club.

We caught up with his manager from a three-year spell at Twente, Ron Jans, to find out more about the player, profile and person.

“Vaclav is one of my favourites, I really loved working with him. He’s had two bad injuries but he’s obsessed with football. As a young kid, he was seen as one of the biggest talents in Europe,” Jans says of Cerny, who first signed Twente on a season-long loan before moving to the club permanently in 2021.

“He had a first bad injury at Ajax and second in 2021. It was not a good fit at Utrecht and I think the coach at the time, so we picked him up at Twente.

“Vaclav had real speed, his left foot is incredible and he really works hard as a player. He’s a real high-intensity player in transition and when pressing. Sometimes he wants things to happen too quickly and needs to be relaxed in his head, but we all love watching football players who are doiing something special.

“Injuries made it hard for him as a young player because Ajax is such a tough team to break into. But in coming back from those setbacks you have to show real mentality. There was a lot of competition when Vaclav came back from his injury at Ajax, so they let him go to Utrecht.”

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Cerny suffered a cruciate ligament tear in October 2017 aged 20, missing nearly a year of football. He also spent most of 2021 sidelined with a knee injury but has spent the following years fit and available.

Rangers have long required a natural option on the right wing. Admittedly they’ve spent much of the past six seasons playing without conventional wide players but not since Amad Diallo’s failed loan spell in Glasgow have they boasted a left-footed player capable of operating from the right. Especially given Clement’s desire to use full-backs as supporting attackers, the variation offered by a left-footer on the right has been a requirement this window. 

The Belgian boss also wants players capable of playing at a high intensity off the ball in wide areas to help a pressing structure that's looked undercooked in pre-season. A number of Cerny's goals at FC Twente originate from transition or pressing moments on the right.

“Vaclav is at his best on the right although he can play on the left,” Jans adds.

“I always used him on the right because of his ability to cut inside and shoot - but he can also cross and shoot on his right side so he's not limited to one movement. He’s not someone who only looks to shoot; he can also create for those around him. Vaclav is also capable of moving inside to play in the pockets, allowing the full-back to move around him. But he's at his best moving first from the outside instead of the inside.”

Cerny struck up a strong partnership with Danilo during the 2020/21 season prior to injury. Danilo finished the league season with 17 goals and five assists while Cerny managed six goals and seven assists before a season-ending injury in that January. That started with the Brazilian forward’s cute assist to create an early opener against Feyenoord in the second game of the season.

The duo combined for eight goals before Christmas and Cerny’s injury, demonstrating a link-up that Clement will be keen to rekindle at Ibrox. The relasionship extends all the way back to their time playing for Ajax’s second team before becoming first-team players.

“Danilo and Vaclav played together and had a great fit - the chemistry was really good. They both joined the club and knew one another from their time playing at Jong Ajax. They scored so many goals in the first-half of the [2020/21] season it was sensational.”

After the best season of his career in 2022/23 in which he managed 13 goals and 11 assists in 32 appearances, Cerny was the subject of a big-money move to Germany last summer.

His StatsBomb radar below demonstrates just how impressive that campaign earning a move to Germany was. Remember when reading the below radar, the closer to the boundary lines the better. Compared to all other wingers and attacking midfielders in the Eredivisie that season, Cerny ranks in the high 90s for the number of shots taken, touches in the opposition box, pressures applied, the impact of his passes and carries and chances created for others. That's backed up by the near-even share of 13 goals and 11 assists.

Vaclav Cerny's standout 22/23 season (Image: StatsBomb)

His spell at Wolfsburg hasn’t worked out but according to Jans, much of that has to do with the style of play.

“I still had contact with Vaclav last season and they often played more of a 3-5-2,” he adds.

“One of the nice things about the European Championships was the fact that wingers came back to life. For me when you don’t play with wingers, I think it is a waste of football. It’s difficult sometimes when you see a 3-5-2 with wing-backs, because most real wingers are not defensively suited to that system. That was a problem for Vaclav at Wolfsburg.

“Sometimes when he is not playing he can make things difficult for himself because he wants to fight back and work hard and his body language can be disappointed. As a coach he is a really great guy to work with though and he’s more mature now.

“Vaclav just needs two things, confidence and a good relationship with the coach and the crowd. I hear the supporters in Glasgow are great, so that is something.”