Ahead of what is set to be a summer of substantial change at Ibrox, Tom Lawrence is just one of many seemingly entering his final few weeks as a Rangers player.
Alongside Ianis Hagi and Leon Balogun, the experienced playmaker is set to become a free-agent when his contract expires at the end of June.
And despite a pretty positive few days for him – Tom Lawrence was recalled by Wales and then fizzed home a trademark long-range strike as Rangers fought back to beat Dundee 4-3 last weekend – uncertainty continues to hang over the club’s number eleven.
According to reports, Lawrence already has as many as nine clubs interested in signing him this summer. Ambitious Wrexham are keen to snap up the ex-Manchester United prospect. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Besiktas are allegedly in the mix too.
And while Burnley have already been linked with Lawrence, reports claim their Lancashire neighbours Blackburn Rovers are now keen to reunite the 31-year-old with former Rangers team-mate Todd Cantwell.
Don Goodman can’t understand Blackburn Rovers’ links with Rangers ace Tom Lawrence
That, however, is a transfer Football League expert Don Goodman simply cannot understand.
The former Wolves, West Brom and Sunderland striker feels that, given the scepticism the Blackburn supporters are already showing towards those in charge at Ewood Park, the signing of an injury-prone 31-year-old on a free-transfer would hardly get the hairs standing up on end.
“A move to Blackburn Rovers? I would say it is more of an appropriate move than to Burnley, going to Blackburn,” Goodman tells Football League World.
“However, I am just looking at the way that the club is at the moment. There seems to be zero trust by the fans to the owners, to the Director of Football, to the Chief Executive, to the people that recruit the players.
“Their transfer business has been really underwhelming. And I suspect that, if Tom Lawrence was signed at Blackburn Rovers, I am not sure that it would be a signing that would really excite the fans.
“It seems to me like the next signings they do make at that football club need to be the ones that excite the fans.”
Lawrence has ‘really struggled’ to earn starts under Barry Ferguson
Lawrence has only started eight Premiership games in what has been another season interrupted by fitness issues north of the border. And while he has scored four times in those eight starts – including last week’s laser-guided strike at Dens Park – there has been relatively little to suggest that Rangers should be considering a contract extension.
“He’s been at Rangers for coming up to three seasons,” adds Goodman, who remembers Lawrence from his time in England with Derby County and Ipswich Town. “It hasn’t gone as well as I feel Tom or Rangers will have wanted. He’s really struggled for game time certainly since the beginning of the year.
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“What would he add to Burnley at 31, other than experience? They’ve probably got enough of that already.
“It’s not really a move that, with respect, would make a lot of sense to me.”
Rangers host Hibernian at Ibrox on Saturday at 3pm. Lawrence will be hoping that his impressive impact at Dundee is enough to earn him a relatively rare start.
