Rangers could get Everton to stretch to £12million for Nathan Patterson

Rangers may be able to get Everton to stretch as far as £12million to sign right-back Nathan Patterson in January, according to Daily Record journalist Gavin Berry.

Writing on the newspaper's website, Berry reports that there's a chance the Premier League club could build on their £5million bid for the 20-year-old that was laughed off in the summer.

It is understood that a bid worth £12million could prove to be too good to refuse for Rangers, who "have made no secret of the fact that player trading is a key part of their business model" and are yet to pocket a substantial sum of cash on one player since returning to the Scottish Premiership.

To sell - or not to sell?

That is the question that Rangers are bound to be asking themselves in the January transfer window.

If you're Everton, then you're a team that's struggling in the Premier League, has a bit of a transfer budget for new arrivals in January and is in desperate need of a new right-back.

Patterson has shone for both the Gers and for Scotland, is only 20-years-old and in terms of the money that gets thrown around in the Premier League, he's also going to be quite affordable.

That £12million probably doesn't sound like a lot south of the border with clubs in the English Championship spending more than that in recent years.

However, up here in Scotland, that is a helluva lot of cash for someone who's yet to cement himself in the side, has been left out in favour of a more senior player by two managers and isn't that experienced.

Selling Patterson does make a lot of sense.

We don't want to advocate selling our promising youngsters but if a bid of £12million comes in for a 20-year-old who's struggling for starts, then we might be daft to turn it down.

In other Rangers news, this Gers star could be set for six weeks out with an injury.