Earlier this month, Josh Maja was reported as a transfer target for Celtic by the Sun.
Rangers were then briefly touted as potential suitors by the Sunday People (Print edition 20/01/2019, page 49).
Yet, neither Old Firm club secured his signature.
Instead, Bordeaux snapped him up on a four-and-a-half year contract from Sunderland.
According to Transfermarkt, the initial fee for the move was £1.53 million.
Les Girondins currently sit a respectable 12th in Ligue 1.
Will Rangers rue not swooping for Maja?
Of all the players Rangers have been linked with during this window, the 20-year-old could be the one that got away.
His goalscoring exploits this season have been nothing short of superb.
With 15 in 24 League One matches, he has netted at considerably better than a goal every other game.
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Such clinical finishing left him joint second in the third-tier’s scoring charts, while he boasts by far the best goals to minutes ratio of any player on that list.
What’s more, this is just the beginning.
Maja is still only 20.
Given this is his first full season in senior football, his impact has been remarkable.
Such natural finishers are hard to come by and should Alfredo Morelos leave in the summer, Rangers will face a difficult task in attempting to replace him.
Of course, the arrival of Jermain Defoe, means that Rangers are well stocked right now.
Yet, bringing Maja in this month could have allowed him time to bed in before he became the main man next campaign.
£1.53 million is a bargain and one Rangers perhaps should have been more alert to.
