Rangers to ramp up pursuit of exit-bound Millwall striker Zak Lovelace
Rangers are ready to ramp up their hunt to sign young Millwall striker Zak Lovelace, according to the Daily Record.
The newspaper reports that the Light Blues showed initial interest in the 16-year-old talent in the January transfer window.
It is understood that the forward’s contract at Millwall expires this summer and while the English Championship club have offered him a professional deal, they fear “he will move cross-border for less than £200,000 in compensation”.
The Daily Record claims that if Lovelace was to join another English side, London-based Millwall would net over £1million.
One for the future
We’re always happy to see Rangers securing young talents from south of the border.
It’s clever way to do business due to the cross-border compensation fees being so small.
Even if Lovelace never sets foot on Ibrox’s turf, he could still end up netting the club more than £200,000 in the future so the potential profit of this deal means it makes sense.
More importantly, we’d want to see Lovelace sign and eventually play for the first team.
The 16-year-old made his senior debut for Millwall this season when he was just 15-years-of-age.
He made five Championship appearances for the Londoners in the end, all as a substitute.
All but one of them saw Millwall win while the other game, against Middlesbrough on 12 March, ended as a draw.
Lovelace looks as though he’s Millwall’s good-luck charm.
However, it does seem as though he might be leaving them this summer with Gary Rowett, as quoted by the Daily Record, admitting earlier this month his future is up in the air.
He said: “There is an inevitability, unfortunately, that some of your better young players get poached by other clubs. To a certain degree those fees are a little bit out of your hands.”
There’s no doubt that there’ll be other clubs looking to sign Lovelace – it’s not very often a 15-year-old players senior football in England’s second-tier.
But if Rangers do sign him, they’ll surely have a talent on their hands.
In other Rangers news, the Gers have made an approach to sign a £1.5million-rated player who could replace Ryan Kent.