Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst gesticulates
Rangers are about to ‘hit the accelerator’ in their pursuit to bring Millwall sensation Zak Lovelace to Ibrox, The Daily Record’s Scott Burns reports.
The lowdown
The newspaper first reported Rangers’ interest in Lovelace back in January, and now it seems they’re ready to take it up a notch.
The 16-year-old striker has only made four first-team appearances for Millwall in the Championship, with his brief run-outs as a substitute totalling 24 minutes.
Lovelace featured in their match-day squad for the first time against Coventry City in December after a scintillating start to the campaign that saw him bag 21 goals in 19 appearances at youth level (via London News Online).
He would become the second-youngest debutant in the club’s history.
In April, Lovelace was unsurprisingly named Schoolboy of the Year at the club’s awards ceremony.
The latest
Burns writes, in a story published at 22:30 on Monday, that Milwall have offered Lovelace a professional contract but are far from convinced that he will sign it.
They could receive in excess of £1million in compensation if he joins another English club, but that windfall would plummet to less than £200,000 if he headed north of the border.
Rangers are intensifying their efforts to land the youngster ahead of the start of pre-season.
The verdict
Lovelace would be an exciting long-term addition for Rangers, especially at just £200k.
His goalscoring record underlines his immense potential, and manager Gary Rowett has been impressed with his adaptation to the men’s game, describing his performance amongst senior team-mates on the training pitch as ‘excellent‘.
Stewart Wilson of The Glasgow Times has gone as far as to bill him a ‘wonderkid’.
This would be pretty shrewd business from the Gers, taking advantage of the cross-border rules as they did with Calvin Bassey two years ago and as Celtic have done with Moussa Dembele.
In other news, this finance expert drops a big Europa League claim.
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