Since Michael Beale arrived as manager, Rangers have been linked with a host of players and one of the first was then Everton midfielder Tom Davies.
Known to the Gers boss from his time at Liverpool’s academy, the England youth cap’s contract status saw him become a viable option .
A glowing report from Michael Beale suggested that Rangers might have been interested in Tom Davies, however, an interview with the Liverpool Echo confirms that it was never, truly, a realistic move.
Rangers link to Tom Davies nothing more than speculation
Beale was looking to improve the quality in midfield and one of the issues we had was that a deep lying playmaker was missing from the squad in the absence of Steven Davis.
Speaking after his recent move to Sheffield United, the 24-year old said of his decision to leave his boyhood club:
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“I’ve always seen myself as a box-to-box midfielder.
“When I first broke into the team at Everton, it was more to do with the attacking side and I would play a lot more offensively than the last few years where I dropped into a deeper role.
“That’s where I see myself playing [advanced] and Sheffield United have noticed that in me too.
“It was a big reason why I wanted to come here.
“He [Paul Heckingbottom] has seen the same things I see in myself and was really keen to develop them. The plan he showed me made sense.
“That development for myself and the confidence of backing my own game, that I know I have, was a massive reason I came here.”
With Nicolas Raskin and Todd Cantwell clearly the top targets, Davies was a name that emerged but was pretty quickly ruled out.
Salary seemed to be the biggest issue, as was the recent anterior cruciate ligament knee injury that he was struggling to recover from.
Rangers needed players who were able to hit the ground running but the fact that Davies sees himself as a player who is more creative means that heading to Ibrox to ply his trade was never realistic.
That Alex Lowry and Ianis Hagi have left on loan shows the depth of options that Michael Beale has and another on big wages simply wasn’t necessary.
Rangers isn’t the place to come if a player is looking for stability and consistency, it’s maybe just as well Tom Davies didn’t come to Glasgow.