Derek Ferguson has hinted that Rangers did make contact with his son Lewis - and says they wasted their time in doing so.
Rangers have been strongly linked with their former academy player, who has been starring in Serie A as captain of Bologna.
However, the asking price of €15-20 milion, as well as rich clubs like Napoli and Juventus being linked, always made it seem unrealistic.
Ferguson Sr was involved in a discussion around what is currently going wrong at Rangers on Open Goal Sport, and feels recruitment has a lot to do with it.
He said: “I don’t know, is it the personnel, is it recruitment?
“He’s obviously wanted certain players in the door, and I think he’s not got them.
“I think they’re slow instead of just going and getting them, they’ve not been able to do that.
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“Might be other reasons. Because the window’s open, certain players they want to bring in might be looking at the English league. We don’t know.
“Do you not get that feeling that when he talks that he’s not got the players that he’s probably identified, they’ve not got them in the door quick enough for him?”
Moving on to talk about his son's situation, he added: “See the thing with Lewis, was that not a waste of f***ing time?
“A waste of time having the conversations and all that, because they must have known the price – between 15 and 20 million euros.
“Rangers cannot go there for a player, so why did they f***ing go down that route?
“Hopefully that will happen somewhere away down the line, but I thought that was a waste of time.
“But I think he has had the players in mind, and they have just been too slow to get them in.”