The sample size may be small, given that Philippe Clement and Nils Koppen have only had one transfer window together at Rangers, but former Ibrox striker Kenny Miller feels that there are already a few conclusions you can draw from the club’s January business.
Mohammed Diomande and Oscar Cortes, joining from Nordsjaelland and RC Lens on loan-to-buy deals, are aged 22 and 20. Fabio Silva, the Wolves-owned striker who does not have a purchase clause in his contract but may still be considered for a permanent move, is still only 21.
Some of the club’s other mid-season targets – Owen Beck, Jefte Vital, Frederik Oppegard, Anass Salah-Eddine and more – also fall into the bracket of ‘potential’ and ‘promise’.
So if that is the approach Rangers are taking – prioritising young up-and-comers with substantial re-sale potential – is a striker who will have 29 candles on his cake in August really an option Clement and Koppen will consider? Or, on the other hand, is Lawrence Shankland a forward so prolific, so potentially transformative, that Rangers’ new decision-makers would be willing to make an exception to the apparent rule?
Rangers hero airs Lawrence Shankland doubts
“They are 100 per cent aware of what (Shankland) is doing, with the fact that he is a Rangers fan and there is a lot of hype surrounding him,” Miller tells Clyde SuperScoreboard.
“I am just wondering with how Rangers went about their business in terms of recruitment in January, if he is fitting the profile in terms of his age and potential to resell.
“But what he is going to bring is 25 league goals. That’s a fact. Sometimes you have got to balance it up. There has been a lot of talk this season that the lack of a player like that could cost Rangers in the title race.
“I still think he’d be a really good signing, but whether he is actually on the radar as a realistic target for Nils Koppen and Philippe Clement, I genuinely don’t know.”
Shankland, about as proven a goalscorer as Rangers could hope to find, is four clear at the front of the Golden Boot race. He has 21 for Hearts, eight more than Clement’s first-choice centre-forward in Cyriel Dessers.
Shankland’s price-tag could potentially be a deciding factor in whether Rangers opt to make a move. With his contract expiring in 2025 and Hearts frustrated in their attempts to tie him down, the Scotland international is reportedly valued in the region of £3 million.
That is less than half the fee Aberdeen reportedly want for the £8 million-rated Bojan Miovski, though a poacher five years Shankland’s junior appears to be a better fit for Rangers’ new-look transfer policy.
Is Bojan Miovski a better fit at Ibrox?
“(Shankland) is terrific,” argues Gordon Dalziel, the one-time Gers frontman. “But I think the only thing that would put Rangers off is the (potential to) re-sell. That is so important to clubs.
“If you are going to go in there and pay Hearts a few quid for him and he bangs in the goals, there always comes a time where you would like to cash in and make a profit.
“Miovski is only 24 and we always hear the argument every week of ‘would he be a better option? But I am a Shankland fan, and he’d score goals for Rangers all day long.”
Miovski, as things stand, is third on the Golden Boot podium, Rangers captain and set-piece master James Tavernier the meat in the Rangers-linked striker sandwich.
