Ryan Hardie hasn’t done enough for Rangers deal….yet

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Glasgow Rangers striker Ryan Hardie is doing the business on loan but a lot more needs to be done to secure Ibrox extension.

Rangers-owned striker Ryan Hardie is certainly making the right kind of noises at the moment. The 20-year-old scored twice for Livingston this past weekend to make it five goals in as many games since leaving the Gers on loan last month.

With his contract set to expire this summer, it was assumed that Hardie did not have a long-term future at Ibrox and although he is definitely going the right way about an extension, a lot more needs to be done before Graeme Murty and Mark Allen will consider keeping him in Glasgow beyond the expiration of his current deal.

He is a decent striker and the fact that he came through the academy has made him popular among Rangers fans, but the reality is that the Ibrox club need top-drawer number nines in the squad and it remains to be seen whether Hardie can be one of them in the long term.

Few can doubt that he is doing the business at Livingston, but it’s worth remembering that the likes of Martyn Waghorn and Harry Forrester also excelled in the second tier and then struggled in the Premiership.

There is a big difference between the quality of both divisions and, as Hardie’s former team-mates have shown, proving yourself in one league doesn’t guarantee goals in the other.

He turns 21 next month, the same age as Alfredo Morelos who is the Premiership’s top goalscorer this season and it’s obvious that the Colombian is well ahead of him.

But Hardie will most likely also have Jason Cummings – on loan from Nottingham Forest – to compete with next season for the number nine shirt next term and it seems unlikely that he’s good enough to shift one of those, let alone both.

Hardie, yet to score in seven Premiership games for Rangers, has a very good goal return for Livingston so far, but only an outstanding one come May will endear him to Murty and Allen. Anything less and the Gers should look at better options to compete with Morelos and perhaps Cummings.