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The Glasgow club from the Scottish Premier League defeated Celtic and several English clubs in the battle for Edinburgh team's goalkeeper Kevin Thomson and laid out a sum of 2 million pounds sterling for the player.
The 22-year-old player signed a long-term, four-and-a-half-year contract with his new club. He became the fourth player acquired by Rangers' head coach Walter Smith since the former Scottish national team coach returned to Ibrox.
"I was fully involved in negotiations and I am happy that the desired amount of money for our player was evaluated and achieved," said Hibernian's head coach John Collins.
But the Edinburgh club, which occupies the 5th place in the Scottish Premiership, firmly stated that K. Thomson's former colleague in the defense line, Scott Brown of J. Collins' team, will not leave in January.
"I am sure that we have a team capable of continuing to compete in the most important matches, so we can maintain the good form displayed until the end of this season," added J. Collins.
The eternal enemy of Rangers, the Celtic club, even made three offers for the Hibernian duo of K. Thomson and S. Brown, but all were rejected. Meanwhile, the lower leagues in England, West Brom and one of the Premier League outsiders, Charlton, also failed to attract these two talented players.
Earlier, coach J. Collins stated that both defenders will stay in the club until the summer, but both K. Thomson and S. Brown showed a desire to leave Hibernian and compete together in another team.
Furthermore, these two players have been included in the line-up of Scotland's national team B, coached by Alex McLeish, for the upcoming international matches against Finland.
However, late on Tuesday evening, K. Thomson moved to Rangers for a sum of 2 million pounds, while Hibernian hastened to announce that "there will be no negotiations" regarding S. Brown's future.
The Edinburgh team tried to fill this gap and called former Ajaccio forward, Hungarian Thomas Sowunmi, for a trial. However, the player, who left the Czech team Slovacko and is currently a free agent, failed to make a greater impression and therefore a deal with Hibernian was not made.
Meanwhile, the future of another Rangers target, Edinburgh Hearts goalkeeper Paul Hartley, remains unclear. It is believed that the Glasgow club offered 750 thousand pounds for the 30-year-old Scottish national team player, but Hearts want to receive more than 1 million. Negotiations should continue on the last day of January.
