Rangers have tabled an improved £2million package to land Morgan Whittaker.
The Light Blues have gone in with a fresh bid to try to land the Swansea City star. Michael Beale earlier in the day had dismissed claims of a new bid, but the approach was made after he had spoken to the media. They are now waiting to see if the offer, which would take add-ons to hit the top-line figure, will be enough.
The Ibrox side are awaiting a response from Swansea’s American owners. The Welsh club have refused to name a price for Whittaker but they are understood to want more than has been offered. The 22-year-old has told Swansea he wants to make the move to Scotland. They are actively trying to persuade him to remain and help their English Championship campaign. Whittaker sat out of last week’s game at Queens Park Rangers because his head wasn’t right after all the speculation.
Swansea have no game this weekend and it means that Rangers can go right to the deadline. Whittaker has already been on loan at Plymouth and can’t only play for two teams in the one season.
Beale has confirmed Rangers are still trying to thrash out a deal to land Nicolas Raskin but is adamant his squad is strong enough to compete if there are no new arrivals by Tuesday’s deadline. The Rangers boss insisted reports of a pre-contract deal with 21-year-old Standard Liege midfielder Raskin being struck were wide of the mark.
Speaking yesterday lunchtime ahead of a clash with St Johnstone which will see new signing Todd Cantwell and injury-hit Ianis Hagi in the squad, Beale said: “It is not true that we have signed a pre-contract with anybody. So I can dispel that right now.
“He (Raskin) is obviously a player we like and there are negotiations going on between the clubs. But they are not the only ones we are speaking to. But nothing has changed on Whittaker. There is no movement on that from the last time we spoke.
“On Swansea’s side they said a bid wasn’t accepted and we had made a bid so that’s not moved anywhere. There has been no further communication between the two clubs.
“I am looking for good players in every position. What we have to do is be happy with the deal that we are doing and the price we are paying for the players and if we are not we move to the next one.
“There are a lot of good players out there and it is certainly not just those two players that are being mentioned. I do like them, the club likes them, we have been clear on that. But they play for somebody else and if they don’t want to sell they don’t want to sell. There are three or four more we are speaking to. If the deal is right now it is going to get done. If the deal is not right now we will move to the summer.
“If we don’t, I think our squad is strong enough to go to the end of the season, so I won’t be devastated if we get to next week and we don’t get another one in. In the summer, with the contract situation, it does open up space in the squad.”
Beale is delighted to get back to Ibrox today after playing two-thirds of his nine games away from Govan since his return in November. He said: “We’ve played six of our games away from Ibrox since I came back and now we’ve got three of the next four, including the cup game there.
“I’m delighted about that. It will be a good surface to play on and I’m expecting us to put on some strong performances.”
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