Rangers Renew Interest in Josh Windass Amid Wrexham's Resistance

Rangers have come back for Josh Windass. Again.

According to talkSPORT, the Ibrox club have now formalised their interest in the Wrexham forward ahead of the summer window, marking a third attempt to bring him back to Glasgow. They know exactly what they’re chasing: a player who wore their shirt 73 times between 2016 and 2018 and has since grown into a ruthless, seasoned attacker.

This time, the pursuit has a very clear architect. Danny Rohl, now in charge at Rangers, is driving the move. He knows Windass as well as anyone in the modern game, having overseen his most prolific spell at Sheffield Wednesday, where the forward hit 50 goals under his watch. When a manager pushes this hard for a familiar face, it usually means one thing – he sees him as central to the rebuild.

Rangers need that rebuild badly. A third-place finish in the Scottish Premiership, trailing Celtic and Hearts, has sharpened minds at Ibrox. The attack, in particular, is being stripped back and reimagined. Windass is near the top of that list, while talks for Hearts striker Lawrence Shankland are already at an advanced stage. It’s a clear statement: the front line will not look the same when the new season starts.

Yet the club that currently has Windass is in no mood to play the role of feeder.

Wrexham have just seen the 30-year-old crowned their Player of the Season after a campaign that felt historic on a personal level. Sixteen Championship goals – a club record in the division – and five assists in 41 league appearances underline his importance. He is not just a headline act in a Hollywood-backed project; he is the on-pitch guarantee that the story keeps moving forward.

The Welsh club already showed their hand in January. A formal approach from Rangers was knocked back mid-season, and the stance has hardened rather than softened since. With Windass tied down until 2028, Wrexham hold the leverage and they know it. Any negotiation starts from their number, not anyone else’s.

Windass, publicly at least, is not agitating for a move. Speaking to talkSPORT earlier this month, he nailed his colours to the Racecourse Ground mast.

“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 player forcing the exit door. They sound like a man who believes the current project still has another gear.

Behind the scenes, the market is only just beginning to stir. Transfer specialist Ben Jacobs reports that formal club-to-club negotiations have yet to start, despite Rangers crystallising their interest. For now, it is intent rather than action, pressure rather than breakthrough.

The tension sits in the timing. Rangers want to move quickly as Rohl reshapes an attack that misfired too often last season. Wrexham, meanwhile, are plotting how to turn a narrow miss into a serious Championship play-off push. Selling their Player of the Season on the cheap does not fit that plan.

So the standoff builds. A manager who trusts Windass implicitly on one side, owners with deep pockets and big ambitions on the other, and a forward who has already shown he can carry a club’s hopes across a long, unforgiving campaign.

If Rangers are to prise him away this time, it will not be with sentiment. It will take a bid that tests just how far Wrexham’s Hollywood script is willing to bend.