Rangers boss Michael Beale wants midfield powerhouse John Lundstram to sign a new long-term contract at Ibrox.
The Light Blues gaffer sees the Scouser as a key player for the club moving forward. Lundstram only has 18 months left on his current deal and Beale will urge the Ibrox board to offer him an extension. When he arrived from Sheffield United in 2021, he struggled to cement a place in the team put together by Steven Gerrard and Beale. But under Gio van Bronckhorst, Lundstram excelled and was pivotal in their run to the Europa League Final in Seville last season.
Beale was always convinced the 28-year-old would come good in Govan - and now he wants him to commit his future to Rangers. When asked if he’d like to get him tied up on a new deal, the manager said: “Yeah, definitely. John knows what I think of him and we are both on completely the same page. He was one of the first players I talked to when I came back to Rangers. I didn’t communicate with him much before the Scouse mafia was here - they used to speak their own language!
“Steven and John had a good relationship with him, I was more of a coach. But when I came back in, he was someone I wanted to sit down with straight away and explain how important I thought he was. I also wanted to know his ideas and thoughts on what maybe hadn’t been going so well.”
At the start of his Rangers career, Lundstram was subbed in an early defeat to Dundee United at Tannadice and it was unclear whether he’d be a success in Scotland.
He’ll be vital for Beale’s men when they return to Tayside this afternoon in Premiership action. And the Gers boss says he knew Lundstram would come good.
He said: “Back then, the team was really strong and had a lot of clarity. If you’re coming in from the outside, you have to understand all of that. The training was super intense so it took players coming in time to adjust.
“John came from Sheffield United where they were playing a certain way. At Rangers, we were playing in a completely different way.
“They’d come out of the Premier League, losing a lot of games and weren’t expected to win many. Maybe they didn’t have a lot of the ball. You come to Rangers and you have to win. So you have to give people time to adjust.
“Also, the team was very slick. It’s hard to take a shirt off someone when the team hasn’t lost in the league in 12 months. But John has gone on to be hugely successful here.
“The two goals he got against Dortmund and Leipzig in Europe last season - whatever he does moving forward - will last long in the memory. John is an important player around here and showed his worth last season.
“He’s in the prime of his career and is a really important player for me building forward. John isn’t just a good player, he has the personality as well. In the second half against Celtic last week, he started winning all of the duels.
“He was athletic around the pitch, he started tagging people and making passes. When we lost him in the game to injury - we lost a lot.”
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