By Doug Ward

21st Apr, 2023 | 5:10pm

£10m to go down drain at Rangers as Barry Ferguson shares what he's heard from behind the scenes

Ryan Kent looks set to leave Ibrox this summer on a free transfer, meaning Rangers will have missed out on at least £10million on the English winger.

Kent, 26, is out of contract at the end of the season and Ibrox News can exclusively reveal that the attacker’s representatives have already held talks with Championship promotion winners Burnley.

The ex-Liverpool player is free to enter pre-contract talks due to the fact he’s in the final weeks of his deal at Rangers, which will expire on 31 May.

Regardless of whether you think Kent is a good player or not and whether you think it’s the right time for him to move on after a lacklustre season, the fact that he’s set to leave on a free transfer is a joke.

It’s even more of a joke when you remember the fact that Rangers received a £10million bid from Leeds United for the winger in August 2020.

BBC Sport reported over two years ago that Leeds offered around £10million for Kent but it was rejected by Steven Gerrard, who said that “Ryan is a player we want to keep hold of”.

We have absolutely no qualms about Gerrard “strongly” rejecting that bid because Kent went on to win the Scottish Premiership title with the Gers and then play a starring role in the run to the Europa League final.

But since that £10million bid went in from Leeds, Kent’s value has surely risen due to his achievements in Glasgow and the fact he’s more of a complete, fully-developed player now.

If Leeds were offering £10million then, they’d surely be offering more – or at least the same – amount now if Kent was still under contract and he was still of interest to them.

Sure, there are a lot of ifs and buts there but the fact remains that Kent is a title-winning English attacker at the peak of his career and has played in a European final for one of the biggest clubs in the world.

Clubs down south would be queuing up to sign him this summer whether he was under contract or not.

It’s yet another reminder of the negligence shown by Ross Wilson prior to his exit from Rangers.

How has such a valuable asset been allowed to have his contract wind down to nothing?

Gers legend Barry Ferguson wrote in his column for the Daily Record on 21 April (page 58) that “he’s heard some discussions about whether or not this is the time to prepare for life without Kent”.

The simple fact is that it is time to prepare for Kent’s exit.

He’s more than likely going to be a Burnley player next season. He’s definitely not going to be a Rangers player, anyway.

At least £10million has gone down the drain on this player.

Let’s hope John Bennett’s reign as chairman is more successful in holding onto the value of top-performing players because with Wilson as sporting director, Kent and Alfredo Morelos were allowed to stagnate and then rot.

In other Rangers news, Stewart Robertson’s assurances have proven worthless as another “£30million” has been lost.