Under-fire manager crying out for Rangers ace as Ibrox signing could save his skin

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If reports are to be believed, Rangers’ out-of-contract playmaker Tom Lawrence has no fewer than nine clubs chasing his signature ahead of the summer transfer window.

Some of those, it appears, need him more than others.

While Burnley’s alleged interest in Rangers’ number 11 has raised eyebrows – could Tom Lawrence really be playing Premier League football for the first time in a decade next season? – reports claim that Wrexham have identified the former Manchester United starlet as the latest big-name signing to mark their ambitious ascent up the divisions.

An experienced Wales international, Lawrence would be an addition which resonates considerably in the nation’s north east.

On Friday night, meanwhile, two of the 31-year-old’s rival suitors went head to head in England’s second tier. On a night in which former Rangers target Tommy Conway channelled his inner-Dennis Bergkamp with a fabulous solo effort, Middlesbrough’s 2-0 win away at Blackburn Rovers brutally exposed the gulf in quality between the two promotion-seeking sides in the final third.

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Blackburn Rovers may need Rangers’ Tom Lawrence

Even after storming into a 2-0 lead since eight minutes, there was only one team looking like adding a third goal to the scoreboard and it wasn’t Rovers.

Audible boos rang out – as well a volley of blue-tinged criticism heading the way of under-fire boss Valerien Ismael – while Boro racked up attack after attack to barely a hint of a response from Todd Cantwell and co at the other end.

Blackburn lost highly-rated head coach John Eustace to his beloved Derby County a few weeks back. Ismael, parachuted in to replace the once-Rangers linked manager, is already drowning amid a tidal wave of frustration.

Five defeats in a row for Rovers. Not only that. The results are only the tip of the iceberg. The 1995 Premier League champions have scored a grand total of three goals in a winless seven game run too.

“It was better in the second half,” former Barnsley, Watford West Brom coach Ismael said after another chastening day in the hotseat. “But we need to be better at creating chances.”

Creating chances, and taking chances for that matter.

Lawrence could join Todd Cantwell at Ewood Park

With Cantwell underwhelming – only three goals and two assists for him in 32 games – the prospect of returning to Rangers for another benchwarming playmaker won’t lift the mood at Ewood Park.

“Their transfer business has been really underwhelming,” EFL pundit Don Goodman tells Football League World.. “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.”

But for all the potential drawbacks – Lawrence is 31 now and historically injury-prone – there is most certainly a place at Blackburn for a footballer of his talents. Provided they can keep him fit, of course.

Despite starting only eight Premiership games this term, Lawrence has still found the net four times.

The laser-guided finish which drew Rangers level in last week’s 4-3 win at Dundee was trademark Lawrence in it’s execution. The sort of rabbit-out-of-the-hat, match-changing brilliance a Blackburn side with one point from the last 18 available are crying out for.

For a team who have seen the goals dry up quicker than a puddle in a desert, while a 30-something free-agent with a worrying injury record looks ‘underwhelming’ on paper, in practice Tom Lawrence’s impact on Blackburn Rovers may be anything but.