Rangers Pursue Josh Windass Again as Wrexham Holds Firm

Rangers have gone back to an old flame. Again.

According to talkSPORT, the Ibrox club have formally revived their move for Wrexham forward Josh Windass ahead of the summer window, the third time they’ve tried to bring him back to Glasgow. They know exactly what they’re chasing: a player who wore the shirt 73 times between 2016 and 2018, and who has since grown into a ruthless, seasoned attacker.

At the heart of the push is Danny Rohl. The Rangers manager is not gambling on reputation or nostalgia. He has seen this version of Windass up close. At Sheffield Wednesday, under Rohl’s watch, Windass hit 50 goals, a body of work that has convinced the German that the 30-year-old can be a centrepiece in the rebuild he has promised.

Rangers need that rebuild badly. A third-place finish in the Scottish Premiership, trailing both Celtic and Hearts, has sharpened the mood around Ibrox. The attack, in particular, is being ripped up and reimagined. Windass is a headline target, but he is not the only one. Talks with Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland are already at an advanced stage as the club look to add guaranteed goals rather than potential.

The problem? Wrexham have their own plans, and Windass is central to them.

The forward has just been named Wrexham’s Player of the Season after a record-breaking campaign. Sixteen Championship goals – the most ever by a Wrexham player at that level – and five assists across 41 league appearances have underpinned the club’s surge under their Hollywood-backed ownership. This is not a player they can easily replace, nor one they seem willing to cash in on.

Their stance has already been tested. Rangers made a formal move in January and were knocked back. No hesitation, no softening. Wrexham refused to engage and kept their prize asset exactly where he was.

The landscape has not shifted much since.

Windass is tied to the Racecourse Ground until 2028 after signing a three-year deal last summer. That contract gives Wrexham enormous leverage. They do not need to sell. They certainly do not need to entertain cut-price offers from a club desperate to catch Celtic and avoid another season watching Hearts from behind.

Windass, publicly at least, has played the loyal lieutenant. Speaking to talkSPORT earlier this month, he was clear about where he sees himself.

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

Those are not the words of a man agitating for a move. They are the words of a player who believes Wrexham are on the brink of something bigger – namely, a serious tilt at the Championship play-offs next season.

That ambition is key. Wrexham’s owners have invested too much, and come too far, to allow their main attacking threat to leave without a fight. They will look at his numbers, his status in the dressing room, his connection with the supporters, and conclude that his value to them on the pitch outweighs any short-term fee, unless Rangers arrive with an offer that forces a rethink.

Right now, they haven’t. Transfer specialist Ben Jacobs reports that, despite the formalised interest, club-to-club negotiations have not yet officially begun. For all the noise, this is still a stand-off in its early stages rather than a full-blown tug-of-war.

Rangers, though, are not in a position to drift. They need clarity, and quickly. Rohl wants an attack built around proven finishers, not another year of patchwork solutions. The pursuit of Shankland underlines that urgency, but landing Windass would send a different kind of message: that Rangers can still tempt a key figure away from an ambitious, upwardly mobile English club.

For Wrexham, the calculation is different. Keep Windass, keep the goals, and keep the momentum that has carried them this far. Lose him, even for a substantial fee, and they risk ripping out the spine of a side aiming to “go one better” in a division where small margins decide who climbs and who stalls.

One club is trying to reclaim its status at the top of Scottish football. The other is trying to crash the party higher up the English ladder. Josh Windass sits right between those two ambitions.

Who blinks first?