Michael Beale couldn’t quite bring Morgan Whittaker to Rangers in January but the attacker may wish the move to Ibrox had materialised.
Rangers did manage to sign a couple of Beale’s top January targets.
Playmaker Todd Cantwell arrived from Norwich City before Nicolas Raskin arrived in a somewhat protracted move from Standard Liege.
If there was one disappointment for Beale though, it was missing out on Swansea ace Whittaker.
Wales Online claimed in January that Rangers had failed with a bid to sign Whittaker, which was later claimed to be worth around £900,000 by The Scottish Sun.
Rangers upped their offer to around £1.5million according to The Daily Record, which Swansea again rejected.
The January window passed without the two clubs coming to an agreement, meaning Whittaker has stayed in South Wales.
Whittaker was left in limbo throughout January.
Having spent the first half of the season on loan at Plymouth Argyle, one appearance for Swansea would have ruled out a Rangers move due to the rules prohibiting playing for three clubs in a season.
Now able to get playing again, Whittaker may be a little frustrated with his role at Swansea.
Whittaker featured for Swansea as soon as the window closed, playing for the first time in over a month as he played 20 minutes against Birmingham City.
The 22-year-old was then given 35 minutes against Sheffield United but just 11 minutes against Blackpool.
Whittaker may feel a little insulted now as he was only brought on for a matter of seconds in a 1-0 defeat at Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
That only came after Blackburn had taken a late lead, so it’s reasonable to suggest Whittaker wouldn’t have played at all had the score stayed at 0-0.
Whittaker racked up nine goals and seven assists on loan at Plymouth but is now scraping together substitute appearances for Swansea.
Few could blame him for wishing he had joined Rangers, where he would surely have played a decent role given the money Beale wanted to spend on him.
Maybe a summer move to Rangers can be resurrected, with Whittaker facing an interesting few months under ex-Gers defender Russell Martin.
