Zak Rudden, who has a Rangers transfer clause in his current deal, has entered contract talks with Partick Thistle following a stunning end to the season [Glasgow Times].
The Gers retained options on Rudden when he left Ibrox for the Jags in January 2020, signing a two-and-a-half-year deal.
He had an extremely difficult first year with injuries and a lack of fixtures due to the pandemic, but he sprung into life at the back end of the recently-completed League One season, netting seven times in seven games to fire Thistle to promotion.
Jags boss Ian McCall was delighted to see the former Ger come good and although an agreement isn’t in place yet, he hopes he will soon sign off on an extension.
“The first thing I did was to try and extend the contracts of key players,” he said [Glasgow Times]. “There are still two I need to do which are Brownlie and Rudden.”
“I’m hoping Rudden will extend his contract. If he does and he has the type of season that I think he’s capable of – listen, he might go [to a Premiership club]. That’s up to [chief executive] Gerry [Britton] and [chairman] Jacqui [Low]. But I have no problem with that.”
“I think the boy thinks that I stood beside him when he was getting all sorts of stick and that’s why I think he’ll extend his contract by another year. At the end of it, he’ll only be 22 or 23. I’ve said all along, even when he was getting dog’s abuse, that he just needed that wee bit of luck in terms of fitness.”
With Rudden currently under contract until the summer of 2022, a year-long extension would take him through to the end of the 2022/23 campaign.
Key Ibrox figures such as Ross Wilson, Gary McAllister and Craig Mullholland were in attendance at Firhill in late April when the Scotland youth cap delivered a brilliant individual display against Falkirk.
However, given that there was no mention of Rangers in this update, it looks as though Rudden’s former club won’t be taking up their option to bring him back to Ibrox this summer.
In other news, Rangers appear to have been dealt a transfer blow after a 10-goal Ibrox-linked player’s agent spoke out about his client’s wishes.
