Championship outfit Blackburn Rovers are no closer to agreeing a new contract with Joe Rothwell as Steven Gerrard’s Rangers eye up a bargain deal for the stylish midfielder, as reported by the Lancashire Telegraph.
If Southampton are renowned for snapping up exciting, technically-gifted youngsters with substantial re-sale value, if Manchester City accumulate ball-playing number tens by the bucket-load, then what is the ‘typical’ Rangers signing?
Free agents, perhaps? Or, at the very least, players who can be snapped up for a mere fraction of their market value with just a few months of their contracts remaining.
Since 2019, John Lundstram, Fashion Sakala, Nnamdi Ofobohr, Leon Balogun, John McLaughlin, Calvin Bassey, Jermain Defoe, Joe Aribo, Greg Stewart, Steven Davis, Jake Hastie and Jordan Jones have all moved to Ibrox on free transfers.
Scott Wright and Glen Kamara, meanwhile, joined from top-flight rivals Aberdeen and Dundee during the January transfer window, five months before they too found themselves without a club.
Will Joe Rothwell be Rangers’ next bargain signing?
It should come as no real surprise, then, that Rothwell has found himself on Rangers’ radar.
The Manchester-born 26-year-old, one of the most technically gifted and eye-catching central midfielders in England’s second tier, is yet to extend a contract which expires in July 2022.
According to reports from Lancashire, talks over a new deal have hit an ‘impasse’; months of negotiations coming to nothing thus far.
It was The Sun, on Sunday, who broke the news of Rangers’ interest.
Given that Rothwell is at his barnstorming best when driving through the heart of midfield, dribbling past opponents with a trademark turn of pace, the former England U20 star feels like a player capable of giving this Rangers side a different dimension, a ball-carrying alternative to the more stately Davis or Kamara.
“I love to see him picking it up deep, running past men, breaking lines… you can see the fear in the eyes of the centre halves as he breaks past midfield,” Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray previously said of Rothwell, a one-time Sheffield United target.
“When he straightens someone up, he’s devastating at times.”
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