Neil Lennon shares what he knows about Ryan Kent future at Rangers
Neil Lennon has hailed Ryan Kent as a “very good” player but he claims there isn’t a great deal of interest in the Rangers winger going into January.
Kent has only a few months left on his current deal at Ibrox. Lennon says it will be “interesting” to see if he stays or goes, adding he “will be amazed” if the club decide to sell him.
The Mirror (23 December) reported that Southampton want to sign the 26-year-old in a £5m deal in January.
“Ryan Kent is a very good player. He has not been productive over the last six months as he previously has been, but he is a player who is good enough for the Premier League. It will be interesting to see though if he would want to stay or go,” said the former Celtic manager to Football Odds, as quoted by GlasgowLive.
“However, I will be amazed if Rangers decide to sell Ryan, and I’m not aware of a huge amount of interest for him. He will need to be better in the second half of the season before anyone takes him on.”
Reinvented
Michael Beale has already made it clear that he will allow players to leave if they do not want to stay.
However, with Kent, the Bears need to make an exception. They paid a lot of money to sign him permanently from Liverpool and it would be a financial disaster to sell him on the cheap, let alone lose him for free.
Lennon is right that Kent hasn’t always been productive, especially in terms of scoring goals and providing assists, but he brings a lot more to the side.
It appears that Beale can get the best out of the winger. Keith Jackson recently wrote for The Daily Record (26 December, page 46) that Douglas Park must do everything to keep the winger happy and give him the contract he deserves.
Beale can transform Kent into a different beast, and already the signs are evident. He is being used more centrally, the role played by Lionel Messi during the World Cup for Argentina.
He can now exert more influence operating centrally which gives an unpredictable edge to his game, something that was missing previously.
In other Rangers news, a £5million twist has emerged in Southampton’s bid to sign Ryan Kent.