Glasgow Rangers fans have become accustomed to seeing Jamie Murphy making an impact for the Ibrox side on the left wing.
Despite an underwhelming year this past season, it must be an extremely exciting time to be a Rangers fan as the anticipation continues to grow ahead of Steven Gerrard’s first campaign at Ibrox.
Gerrard has seemingly added to the anticipation by targeting a number of exciting names who have the quality to take the Scottish Premiership by storm. Unsurprisingly, his Liverpool links have played a role in his identifying of targets.
The Daily Express reported earlier this week that the Gers are targeting loan moves for Harry Wilson, Ryan Kent and Ben Woodburn – all of whom currently find themselves on Jurgen Klopp’s books. And that is not the only thing the trio have in common.
All three Reds players could be considered wingers, with Woodburn also an extremely promising striker. And while getting any of the three through the door would be a fantastic deal for Rangers, there may be a couple of the Gers players feeling slightly concerned by the links.
Jamie Murphy and Daniel Candeias were two of the Light Blues’ best players this past season and played key role in ensuring that Rangers finished as the highest goalscorers in the Scottish Premiership.
But with neither proving to be Gerrard signings, they may be concerned about the possibility of having three new rivals to contend with next season. So could the interest be a sign that there may be a new role for Murphy next term?
The 28-year-old has joined permanently after signing initially on loan in January. It was a superb loan spell which saw Murphy score four goals and provide eight assists in the top flight and surely do enough to show to Gerrard that he should remain a key part of his plans.
So perhaps Gerrard may just feel that Murphy’s best role next season could be in the middle playing as the attacking midfielder working just behind the striker.
The Scotland international was frequently seen cutting inside onto his favoured right-foot this past season, so perhaps Gerrard may have decided that he wants to give the midfielder the chance to get a lot more involved in the middle of the park and is targeting the cluster of wingers to enable that transition to happen.
If Murphy is indeed set for a move to the middle and Gerrard manages to land one or two of his winger targets, it is surely fair to say that Rangers’ attack could potentially prove to be even more lethal than it has been during a campaign where they scored more goals than any other team in the division.
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