Reported Rangers target Ross Stewart is said to be very close to signing new terms at current club, Sunderland.
The Scotland international is one of many names to have been linked to Ibrox in recent months and like most of them, he won’t be pulling on a blue shirt any time soon.
Whilst the club may well have been tracking the striker, it is not though that a move back to Scotland from Wearside was close.
Over the last campaign, the former Ross County striker was pivotal as the Mackems finally made in out of the third tier in England with a return to the Championship where Alex Neil will hope to stabilise his side in the coming months.
Part of that plan will be to secure Stewart on new terms, effectively ending the Ibrox speculation.
Neil was quoted by the Northern Echo on the issue:
“Naturally, when you’ve got good players that have done well, they deserve to be rewarded. In terms of his contract, I’m pretty sure that something will get resolved.”
“We’re eager for Ross to stay, so I don’t see there being any issue with that. Ross is happy, I spoke to him the other day, and he’s content with where he is. He’s just looking forward to the season.”
Context
Antonio Colak’s arrival has provided Rangers with a different option in attack and another front man to get the goals.
Whilst he won’t be played as a ‘target man’, his height and power means he can be dangerous in the air as well as playing in others. His game has some similarity to Stewart but as we’ve saw already with the Croatian international, his very clever running has been making space for others.
Stewart and others could possibly remain on lists of players to be monitored but sometimes that is as far as it will go. For the Sunderland striker, his next step will be to make an impact in the English Championship.