Last season, Ryan Kent was far from his best, and yet, it was a season that saw him attract more attention than ever.
In particular, displays in the Europa League and against Bundesliga sides saw clubs start to sit up and take notice that normally wouldn’t entertain scouting in the Scottish Premiership.
With the winger approaching the last six-months of his contract, he will soon be able to discuss potential pre-contract agreements, however, in the summer, Giovanni van Bronckhorst remained positive that both he and Alfredo Morelos would sign new deals.
“We know the qualities both Morelos and Ryan bring to the team. They have been part of the squad for many years now.
“A player like Ryan, his abilities and qualities are on a high level. Talks with him are also happening at the moment to extend his contract.
“The same with Alfredo. Hopefully they can sign new contracts that will keep them at Ibrox for longer than this season.
“Both love to be at this club. They are both important players and loved by everyone involved within the club and also the fans.
“They are more than open to extend. If it will come to a deal? Hopefully.
“But I am very happy with both. They bring quality to this squad and eventually, of course, performances on the pitch.”
There has been little movement since the summer though and, speaking to GiveMeSport, journalist Dean Jones reckons that Kent, in particular, won’t be short of offers:
“I remember there was a couple of good clubs in Germany that I was told were interested in signing him.
“So, you would imagine he’s going to get some really good proposals in the coming months as we get towards January.”
Kent only just opened his account for the season at Tynecastle last weekend and has yet to look like the player who was so important in our title winning campaign of 2020/21.
Rangers forwards need to be hitting good numbers for both goals and assists and, for all that his creativity hasn’t really dipped, he really needs to start finding the net more consistently for us to justify making him one of our top earners to stay another few years.
The former Liverpool youngster is at a key stage of his career as he approaches his 26th birthday next month, if he decides to stay at Rangers it could well mean that he is here for the rest of his playing days at the highest level – a thought that seemed fanciful a couple of seasons ago when he was tearing teams apart both at home and abroad.