Is Burton Albion’s Liam Boyce proving Rangers missed a trick?

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Liam Boyce was the Scottish Premiership’s top scorer last season – so why did Rangers not try to beat Burton Albion to his signature?

Rangers might have brought in a number of little-known imports last summer but there was also a number of Scottish Premiership starts on their radar.

The likes of Jamie Walker and Louis Moult were wanted at Ibrox last summer, but why Rangers did not make a move for Liam Boyce of Ross County was anybody’s guess.

An old-school, hard-working poacher, no player in the Scottish Premiership netted more than Boyce’s 23 last season – more than Celtic’s much vaunted duo Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele.

So Rangers appeared to have missed a trick when the Northern Ireland international went to Burton Albion instead – for a fee of just £500,000, according to the Burton Mail.

For that fee, Rangers could have gotten themselves the most prolific goalscorer in Scotland for half of the fee they paid for the hot-and-cold Alfredo Morelos and the figure they would have to give Nottingham Forest for Jason Cummings, who has scored one league goal since his loan arrival in January.

Boyce has endured a testing debut season at Burton to say the least, suffering an ACL injury in pre-season and being forced to wait until February to make his Brewers debut. But the wait might just have been worth it.

Nigel Clough’s side are attempting the great escape from Championship relegation and Boyce has now scored in successive wins, including the stoppage time headed winner at the Stadium of Light on Saturday which sent Sunderland down.

With Morelos and Cummings blowing hot and cold, Rangers could have done with a powerful and scrappy goalscorer like Boyce.