Oliver Antman's Rangers Chapter Closes as He Joins RSC Anderlecht

Oliver Antman’s Rangers chapter is already closing, and it barely felt like it began.

The Finnish winger is on the brink of joining RSC Anderlecht, with manager Derek McInnes confirming on Wednesday that the 24-year-old has travelled to Belgium to put the final touches on the deal. The tone from the Rangers boss was clear: this move is happening.

“An agreement has been reached, and Oliver has travelled to finalise everything. I am quite sure that everything will go well for him,” McInnes told the Scottish media, drawing a line under a brief, stuttering spell in Glasgow.

It was not supposed to be like this.

Antman arrived at Ibrox on the back of a standout 2024–25 season with Go Ahead Eagles, where he had been one of the Eredivisie’s most inventive attacking forces. Six league goals, a division-best 16 assists, and a key role in a KNVB Cup-winning campaign had marked him out as a creator with end product and personality. His £3.5 million move to Rangers felt like the natural next step for a player seemingly on a steep upward curve.

The expectation was simple: take that Dutch form, plug it into a bigger stage, and watch him light up Scottish football.

Instead, the spark never truly caught fire. Antman struggled to settle in Glasgow, flickering in moments rather than burning consistently. Across 28 appearances in all competitions, he managed just one goal and five assists. Respectable numbers for some, but not for a player signed to be a difference-maker, not a peripheral figure.

The pressure that comes with Ibrox can be suffocating. Antman never quite looked like the free, instinctive winger who had tormented defences in Deventer. Where his game at Go Ahead Eagles had been defined by sharp combinations and fearless decision-making, his time at Rangers was marked more by hesitation and adaptation.

So the move to Belgium feels like a release valve.

Anderlecht, one of the traditional giants of the Belgian game, are reportedly paying just over five million euros for the Finland international – a fee that represents a tidy profit for Rangers on a player who never fully clicked in their colours. For the Scottish club, it is a clean exit and a financial win. For Antman, it is a second chance at the kind of platform he thought he had found in Glasgow.

This is not a step down so much as a reset. A major club, a league that suits technical, creative wide players, and a fresh dressing room where he arrives not as a question mark, but as a solution.

If his Go Ahead Eagles form resurfaces in Brussels, Rangers may soon be watching from afar as the version of Oliver Antman they thought they were signing finally reappears – only this time in purple and white.