A player Rangers showed an interest in during the January transfer window now looks destined to join a rival Scottish Premiership club when his contract expires in the summer.
And it appears that you can add the highly-rated 25-year-old to the ever-lengthening list of left-backs appeared on Rangers’ radar, before either moving elsewhere or seeing a potential move to Glasgow slip through their grasp.
Liverpool rebuffed The Gers’ approach for Owen Beck in the winter before sending him back to Dundee. Anass Salah-Eddine and Fredrik Oppegard remained in the Eredivisie. Gijs Smal is joining Feyenoord, meanwhile, and a deal for Fluminense’s Jefte Vital collapsed with APOEL Nicosia reluctant to terminate his loan spell midway through the Cypriot campaign.
Rangers target agrees to join Premiership rival
Rangers are expected to pick up where they left off with Vital when the summer rolls around.
Any plans they may have had about doing the same regarding James Penrice, however, can be put aside now with Hearts agreeing terms to bring the out-of-contract Livingston defender to Tynecastle instead.
According to the Edinburgh News, Penrice has agreed terms with Steven Naismith’s side after deciding against signing fresh terms with David Martindale’s outfit. Heart of Midlothian are also signing Ross County’s Yan Dhanda on a similar deal.
HITC Football reported at the end of January that Hearts were showing an interest in the West Lothian-born defender, alongside Philippe Clement’s Rangers outfit. It is not certain whether the Scottish Premiership challengers were planning to include Penrice on their list of summer targets but, with five assists from full-back in a struggling Livi side, one of the more underrated players in the top-flight certainly deserves an opportunity to prove his talents at a club with greater ambitions at the other end of the table.
Hearts are third, and will play European football in 2024/24.
James Penrice is heading to Hearts
“I think James is going to have a few options in the summer,” Martindale said a few months ago, unsurprised by the speculation surrounding one of his star men.
“(Penrice) has been one of our stand-out players this season, in a poor season. I think he could go and play at a much higher level, and he’ll have options in the summer.”
Whichever left-back does end up joining Rangers will likely replace Borna Barisic. After losing his place to Ridvan Yilmaz, the long-serving Croatian is set to leave on a free transfer.
