St Mirren boss has ‘no doubt’ that Rangers want Vaclav Hladky

Follow us on Google Discover

Vaclav Hladky admitted that Steven Gerrard’s Scottish Premiership challengers Rangers are hoping to sign him in the near future.

St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin has admitted to the Daily Record that goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky is ’99 per cent likely’ to leave the Scottish Premiership strugglers in the near future with Rangers keen to take him to Ibrox.

The Buddies might be bottom of the table but, without the heroic Hladky, they would already be well adrift in last place. The Czech Republic shot-stopper has been arguably the best goalkeeper in the league since he arrived from Slovan Liberec at the start of 2019 and saved three penalties in May’s heart-stopping relegation play-off victory against Dundee United.

Hladky will be out of contract next summer, however, and he admitted to the Daily Record this week that Rangers have been in touch with regards to a potential switch to the blue half of Glasgow.

The Scottish Sun, meanwhile, suggests that the 28-year-old could even sign a pre-contract agreement with The Gers in January with Hladky likely to replace Wes Foderingham in Steven Gerrard’s squad.

And the ongoing speculation has not exactly taken Goodwin by surprise.

“He wants to go and speak to every club out there and he’s within his rights to do that. We haven’t any issue with it,” said the St Mirren boss.

“In terms of us knowing that Vaclav was 99 per cent likely to be leaving, we have to put things in place to make sure we have a replacement coming in.

“It would be stupid of us not to be doing that. We’ve identified a number of goalkeepers we believe would fit the bill.”

In quotes reported by FourFourTwo, Goodwin adds that he has ‘no doubt’ that Rangers are indeed interested in his star man but says that the Premiership title-chasers have not yet contracted St Mirren to make their interest clear.

But with 37-year-old Allan McGregor rolling back the years with a fabulous display in Rangers’ 2-0 Europa League victory against Porto on Thursday, Hladky would be far from guaranteed a starting place in Gerrard’s side.