Rangers defender Carlos Cuellar is poised to become Aston Villa's latest summer signing after the two clubs agreed a £7.8million fee.
Villa have had a bid accepted, confirmed by Rangers as 10million euros, which invoked the release clause in the Spaniard's contract.
Villa will now discuss terms with the 26-year-old but Rangers went a step further to claim the move was as good as complete, subject to a medical.
Cuellar, who was outstanding for Rangers after joining the Scottish club from Osasuna last season, expressed a desire to leave Ibrox last weekend.
His decision is a huge blow to the Scottish club coming just a week after a humiliating early exit from the Champions League at the qualifying stages.
Cuellar was instrumental in Rangers' run to the UEFA Cup final last season and was named Scottish Football Writers player of the year.
Rangers revealed they offered the player a substantially improved contract but it was declined due to his desire to move to the Premier League.
Cuellar told the Rangers website, www.rangers.co.uk: "My ambition has always been to play for my national team and I believe that playing in the biggest league in the world for Aston Villa will help me realise that.
"When I told [chief executive] Martin Bain on Sunday that I wanted to leave, I did so with sadness.
"The Rangers supporters have been fantastic to me, but I am young and want to play at the highest level and I hope they will always welcome me back. I want to thank them for everything."
Cuellar is set to become Villa's seventh signing of the summer following Curtis Davies, Steve Sidwell, Luke Young, Nicky Shorey, Brad Friedel and Brad Guzan.
Rangers manager Walter Smith has expressed his disappointment at Cuellar's decision to move on.
He said: "This has come as a surprise and I am disappointed. Carlos Cuellar has been a great player for the football club and inevitably there has been speculation about him playing in the Premiership.
"The club has received a substantial uplift in fee and we will now reinvest in the team."
Fans' chief David Edgar has called on Rangers to quickly reinvest the Cuellar money.
Cuellar was a huge fans' favourite at Ibrox and Edgar admits his move has compounded the misery of last week's embarrassing and costly loss to Lithuanian minnows FBK Kaunas.
"There is no doubt about it, Carlos was Rangers' best player last season so to lose him is a shattering blow," Edgar said. "The Rangers fans will be reeling from this news.
"If it is Carlos' decision then the fans must respect that but it seems to be one thing after another.
"But the money must be invested and invested quickly. We would expect to see signings in the next few days and they must be the right signings or questions will be asked.
"The start of the season has been a disaster and this has made it worse.
"We have been knocked out of Europe with the loss of all the money that incurs and now we have lost our best player.
"Not preparing for the season properly has come back to haunt us."
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Comment 1 - 17 of 17
Want to swap Villa to SPL with no cash and Rangers to EPL with Millions to spend. You all seem to forget we have no cash investment. Our champions earn less than your relegation teams. Did your teams stand a chance against us when we were buying your best in the 90's. you're league is huge business with huge tv gates and fast becoming a billionaires play toy. Foreign chairmen and business using you for there own means with no passion for the club or fans and when done sell to the highest bidder. In scotland you would be no better than dundee utd or aberdeen. You just don't realise just how big the old firm is and that I find realy disrepectful.
hey bluebells you only do well in your league because the quality of football and opposition is very poor,if you spent a whole season in the prem you would soon find out your not that good.i dont mean this in any nasty or vicious way its just from watching and loving all football you can tell a good team.as for villa being 2nd rate,yes we had a poor run for many years but only because of tight @#$% ellis.a knew man in charge not afraid to spend and things are looking up.cant say the same for rangers
sir alex ferguson must be the most stupid coach, i ever seen despite he claims to be a football elite, he made a rediculous statement by saying wayne rooney contacted flu whle in nigeria. how come nigerians and immigrants dont complain about madcow disease in his country scotland
Do you honestly think Celtic are any bigger. Our players are being bought and for millions. How highly rated are Celtic players all this talk of transfers to big teams yet again and still no takers. Maybe not as great as you think.
who
Does everyone think now that the AGM was a load of lies being told, Smith came out and said CARLOS would not be SOLD i repeat will not be SOLD what have they gone and done SOLD him what a load of @#$%.
Does everyone think now that the AGM was a load of lies being told, Smith came out and said CARLOS would not be SOLD i repeat will not be SOLD what have they gone and done SOLD him what a load of @#$%.
reg darren bromwich. I don't hate Villa in fact the only english clubs I dis like are the London clubs. Oh im not anti english either I have a english wife and love midlands and yorkshire so don't give me that @#$% either. Couldn't give a stuff who your manager is. Fact is I am sick of you people slagging of the old firm telling us we are nothing etc. Yet with the exception of your big 4 what do any of you achieve. What does your national team which I support by the way along with my native Scotland achieve. NOTHING. Aston Villa shouldn't be a match for the old firm but they are cause of your TV deal. Im not saying your TV deal is a bad thing christ I wish we could have the same in scotland. But I hear villa had a good season last year you won what. Rangers are poor we had a bad season by our standards and we won 2 cups uefa final and puushed our biggest rivals all the way after a even worst season before.Fact is Carlos is a big star he should be at a big team challenging for big titles and Rangers should be a big team for him but instead we are not and he has went to a team which wont challange for anything other than mid table.
this is @#$% this was planned long befor last weeks AGM meeting so every thing that came out of that was a bald face lie to keep the fans happy...what happend to {WE DONT NEED TO SELL TO BYE}didnt take long walter did it....
If we dont buy after this sale i will be furious. I am fed up being lied to, how can cuellar go for a medical when he has been seemingly injured. I dont beleive that Cuellae put a tranfer request in and suddenly Martin O'Niel appeared with his cheque book. This enquiry has been going on for weeks. And that is why he never played in europe.
hey bluebells have u ever beat villa and u hate villa cus martin oneil was celtics manager and rangers just couldnt beat them lol
i feel sorry for rangers fans, they are now a small club but dont realise it yet, maybe when celtic win 4 in a row they will get the picture.
First thing first,get davis back pronto,at least something good can come about with losing our best player and get back our other best player of last season!
Nice to see MON is buying seriously now after slim pickings the last few windows.
Apart from Carew and Young, mind.
Hang your head in shame david murray,losing one our best players in Hutton was bad enough,but this is a disgrace! I thought the whole point of trying to win the league was to keep and play your best players,we seem to be doing the opposite.Now we are supposed to sit back and listen to the drivel that the bid invoked a release clause in cuellar`s contract-@#$%! Murray knew all along that cuellar would be sold on hence not playing him in europe,whilst he was fit!,not playing him against falkirk,fear of injury!I`m RANGERS TILL I DIE,don`t think you can say the same David.
Well another SPL star going to some 2nd rate EPL team. Sorry Carlos poor choice.
mr murray get that check in th bank quick....th overdrafts at its max..
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