Rangers Preparing Second Bid For Experienced Hearts Striker: A Wise Move By Gerrard?

One of the players Rangers are interested to lure to the Ibrox Stadium is Heart of Midlothian striker Kyle Lafferty. A few days ago, Hearts had rejected a bid of £200,000 from the Gers for Lafferty as per BBC. Although Craig Levein’s camp has put a valuation of around £1million on him, Daily Record have reported that the Glasgow giants are set to roll out £300,000 as their second bid.

Steven Gerrard has been very busy this summer in trying to beef up the squad at his disposal. He has already signed Connor Goldson, Nikola Katic, Jamie Murphy, Scott Arfield, Jon Flanagan, Allan McGregor, Umar Sadiq, Ryan Kent, Ovie Ejaria and Lassana Coulibaly. However, he is still active in the transfer market and is apparently keen to bolster his attack further.

While veteran striker Kenny Miller has been released from the club, Rangers have shipped out Eduardo Herrera on loan to Santos Laguna. Sadiq’s entry on loan to the Ibrox Stadium is certainly an exciting one but Gerrard does need a proven goal-scorer to dethrone their arch-rivals Celtic from the highest pedestal of Scottish football.

Their desire to rope Lafferty into their ranks makes a lot of sense, for he has volumes of experience under his belt. Having emerged through the youth ranks of Burnley, he impressed for their senior side. In the summer of 2008, Rangers made him sign on the dotted line and after four seasons with the Light Blues, he moved to Sion before switching to the ranks of Palermo.

In 2014, he signed for Norwich City and while he was on their books, he was loaned out to Caykur Rizespor and Birmingham City and he was eventually brought to the Tynecastle Park last summer. He scored 19 goals in 41 appearances for the Jambos and considering that Rangers struggled at times to find the back of the net last term, it isn’t surprising to see them pursuing Lafferty this summer.

He has 67 caps for the Northern Ireland national side and is certainly one of the most clinical strikers in the Scottish Premiership. Gerrard, however, must leave no stone unturned to strike a deal. The 30-year-old hitman is in the final year of his contract and the club is expected to be tempted to sell him after an expensive redevelopment of Tynecastle last year. With Rangers and Hearts locked in the negotiations to strike a transfer fee, it would be interesting to see how things transpire in the coming days.