Rangers have made a habit, under Philippe Clement and Nils Koppen, of looking a little further afield for bargains on the market.
Clinton Nsiala, Jefte Vital, Oscar Cortes, Mohamed Diomande and Hamza Igamane have all arrived at Ibrox on their watch.
Making the moves to Glasgow from Italy, Brazil, France, Denmark and, latterly in a £1.7 million deal likened to that Alfredo Morelos transfer from 2017, Morocco.
But Rangers are certainly not averse to looking closer to home should the opportunity arrive. They jumped at the chance to bring former academy graduate Liam Kelly back home when the goalkeeper’s contract at Motherwell expired.
Connor Barron also joins from Aberdeen. Rangers landing a ‘pass master‘ of a midfielder who could potentially help offset the departure of his former Dons predecessor Ryan Jack.
Speculation suggesting that Rangers could return to Fir Park for two of Kelly’s old Motherwell team-mates, meanwhile, is not going away.
Rangers like Motherwell duo Theo Bair and Lennon Miller
Striker Theo Bair, The Athletic reports, has his admirers in the blue corner of Glasgow.
Football Scotland add that Rangers sent scouts to watch teenage sensation Lennon Miller during Motherwell’s 2-1 victory over Livingston in Wednesday’s pre-season clash.
After that narrow win, Well boss Stuart Kettlewell was rather inevitably asked to comment on the future of both Bair and Miller. And the message to Rangers – should they look to complete a trio of deals for three of Motherwell’s prized assets – is that the Lanarkshire outfit will not sell unless a transfer is agreed on their terms.
“That’s the case for anybody,” Kettlewell tells the Daily Record. “I’ve just been asked the question about Theo as well. Clearly, there’s been interest in Theo. We value the player and that’s the most important thing to the football club.”
The Daily Mail believe that Motherwell could sell Bair for around £1 million.
A revelation at Fir Park with 15 goals and six assists during his debut season, the Canada international is due to become a free-agent in 2025 and there is certainly a deal there to be done.
The same can be said of Miller, a regular in the first-team already at just 17 and nominated for last season’s SPFA Young Player of the Year award.
A striker will be needed if Cyriel Dessers goes
“Yeah we’ve got good players,” Kettlewell accepts.
“But the idea of just any named team – it doesn’t matter whether it’s Rangers or anybody else that’s been linked with Theo Bair – the most important thing is that we sit down and have a value on a player.
“If that player is to go, then it needs to be at that value. Bigger clubs coming in and telling us they want our player and we’ve just to roll over is never going to be thing.
“I don’t wish any of these guys’ careers away from Motherwell. But if that situation happens, which it has many, many times here, then it always has to be at the value the football club sets.
“It’s not what the potential buying club says they want to pay.”
Bair is one of a number of strikers linked with Rangers, alongside Albion Rrahmani, Tommy Conway and Petar Ratov, with Cyriel Dessers’ future uncertain.
Dessers has been linked with both PAOK and Serie A outfit Cagliari, though he does not appear to be the first-choice target at either of those clubs.
