Aberdeen have agreed a fee with Hamburger SV for former Rangers centre-back David Bates as the Scottish Premiership club look to bring him back to the SPFL for the first time since his Ibrox exit (BBC).
Bates left Ibrox for Germany in 2018 and despite a strong start with the Bundesliga 2 club, he has fallen out of favour. Following his departure from Rangers, Bates has also been out on loan at Sheffield Wednesday and Cercle Brugge.
The former Rangers player is set for Aberdeen. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
He could become Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass’ fourth signing of the week after capturing strikers Austin Samuels and Marley Watkins, plus central midfielder Matty Longstaff. Aberdeen exited the Europa Conference League at the play-off stage on Thursday, losing to Qarabag of Azerbaijan.
Glass said: “We gave the ball away cheaply at times, but teams of their quality force you into that. Going forward, we have an opportunity to prove we have as good a group of players as any in Scotland and we want to go and do to other teams what Qarabag did to us.
“They are a group that is better than us and they have gone out and shown that. Now we need to do that in the league here. There is still a hunger and a desire from this group to do well this year. The next incentive is to go and beat Ross County on Sunday, to stay at the top of the league.”
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