da bet nacional: Rangers are about to ‘hit the accelerator’ in their pursuit to bring Millwall sensation Zak Lovelace to Ibrox, The Daily Record’s Scott Burns reports.
The lowdown
da doce: The newspaper first reported Rangers’ interest in Lovelace back in January, and now it seems they’re ready to take it up a notch.
The 16-year-old striker has only made four first-team appearances for Millwall in the Championship, with his brief run-outs as a substitute totalling 24 minutes.
Lovelace featured in their match-day squad for the first time against Coventry City in December after a scintillating start to the campaign that saw him bag 21 goals in 19 appearances at youth level (via London News Online).
He would become the second-youngest debutant in the club’s history.
In April, Lovelace was unsurprisingly named Schoolboy of the Year at the club’s awards ceremony.
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The latest
Burns writes, in a story published at 22:30 on Monday, that Milwall have offered Lovelace a professional contract but are far from convinced that he will sign it.
They could receive in excess of £1million in compensation if he joins another English club, but that windfall would plummet to less than £200,000 if he headed north of the border.
Rangers are intensifying their efforts to land the youngster ahead of the start of pre-season.
The verdict
Lovelace would be an exciting long-term addition for Rangers, especially at just £200k.
His goalscoring record underlines his immense potential, and manager Gary Rowett has been impressed with his adaptation to the men’s game, describing his performance amongst senior team-mates on the training pitch as ‘excellent’.
Stewart Wilson of The Glasgow Times has gone as far as to bill him a ‘wonderkid’.
This would be pretty shrewd business from the Gers, taking advantage of the cross-border rules as they did with Calvin Bassey two years ago and as Celtic have done with Moussa Dembele.
In other news, this finance expert drops a big Europa League claim.