Chelsea winger to join Wigan Athletic as Shaun Maloney's squad strengthening continues
Wigan Athletic are closing in on the capture of Chelsea winger Dion Rankine.
The 21-year-old, who has been with Chelsea since 2016, spent last term on loan with Gary Caldwell's Exeter City.
Rankine made 36 appearances, scoring once, missing both home defeats to Latics in the league and the FA Cup in late October/early November.
He did, however, appear as a second-half substitute - alongside Yanic Wildschut - in Exeter's 2-1 victory at Wigan in March.
And Latics fans will get much more opportunity to watch him at close quarters with a permanent deal on the table.
Indeed, Rankine conducted an interview with Chelsea's official website on Wednesday morning to wax lyrical about his time out on loan – and how much it’s whetted his appetite to ‘kick on’.
"I really enjoyed it,’ he said. "Before I started I just really wanted to go there, play men’s football and get good minutes. But when I look back on it, it exceeded my own expectations. I played plenty of football, I made friends for life and enjoyed every minute.
"Comparing it to playing for the Under-21s, you’re playing so much more football – sometimes two or three games a week. It’s a completely different challenge. And then you have the actual matches where teams play completely differently from anything I had come up against before. It’s just so different.
"I think I had a good season and it was good to have my first full season in men’s football. I’m excited and ready to go and kick on.”
He also paid tribute to ex-Latics man Wildschut for helping him during a frustrating period when he was out injured.
"After my injury, there were a couple of new signings and one of them was Yanic Wildschut,” he said. “He was really supportive of me. I think because we played in a similar position and he has had a really good career, it was good to have advice from him and the way he goes about things. He was almost like a mentor to me. He was really good to have.
"Now I have had my first full season, I’m really excited to kick on and hopefully get more goals and assists.’