Lewis Ferguson has told the Italian press he will eventually leave Bologna for Rangers, but not soon. In a long interview carried by La Gazzetta dello Sport this week, the Scotland midfielder put a move to the Glasgow club in the category of inevitable rather than imminent.

“Rangers? Let’s just say sooner or later, I’ll go there; one day I know it’ll happen,” Ferguson told the Italian daily.

The “sooner or later” does a lot of work. Ferguson’s contract at Bologna runs through 2028, with a 12-month option, and he told the paper he wants to stay at Bologna for at least another year. Bologna, he said, is his home.

He also described wearing the armband at an Italian club as a particular source of pride for a Scot.

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The Rangers thread predates the speculation

Ferguson’s connection to Rangers is older than any transfer rumor. In a September interview with Goal, after his first World Cup with Scotland, he described the Glasgow club as unchanged boyhood territory.

“It’s no secret that I grew up a fan and my family is involved in the club,” he told Goal. “It was a dream of mine as a kid, and that’s not changed.”

His father Derek and uncle Barry Ferguson both played for Rangers, and his former Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes is currently at Ibrox, as Goal noted. That same conversation saw Ferguson play down the summer’s Ibrox speculation, saying nothing had ever been close to a deal. He put his renewed focus down to a fresh start under then-new Bologna head coach Domenico Tedesco and to a long period of reflection after representing Scotland at the summer’s World Cup. The Bologna side has since changed hands again, Ferguson speaks in the Gazzetta interview about current head coach Raffaele Palladino, who he says has reignited the dressing room. In that same interview, Ferguson said he felt chills during the Scottish anthem before the group-stage game against Haiti.

No formal bid on the record

Ferguson has not been linked publicly to a specific January move, and no formal bid from Rangers or any other club has been made public. The clearest line is the one he set himself in Italy this week: another year at Bologna, then the conversation starts.

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