By George Overhill

24th May, 2023 | 7:40am

Rangers want to reach transfer deal as Queen of the South chase Josh McPake with Marvin Bartley keen on early business

Rangers are “keen” to move on Josh McPake this summer if a deal can be reached with Queen of the South, the Glasgow Times reports.

The 21-year-old has been on loan with Queen’s Park this season in the latest of a series of temporary moves, featuring regularly in the Scottish Championship until recently.

He has a year left on his contract at Ibrox but has only made one senior appearance as a substitute almost four years ago under Steven Gerrard so the Light Blues are happy for him to go, as Aidan Smith writes in the Glasgow Times: “[He] failed to hold down a regular squad berth as his dreams of becoming a first team star have gradually faded.”

Queen of the South boss Marvin Bartley is reportedly looking to get his transfer business done early and the winger is one of the possible targets.

Time has come

After five consecutive loan moves the writing is probably on the wall for McPake’s first-team prospects at Ibrox, and every little helps for Michael Beale’s transfer budget and space on the wage bill, so a move would make sense from all perspectives.

The Queen’s Park move has seen the young wide man get the most sustained senior action since spending half a season with Harrogate Town the season before last but apparently fell out of favour under Owen Coyle.

Time with Greenock Morton, Morecambe and Tranmere have given him a fairly varied experience already, so if Bartley is eager to get hold of him then it should suit all parties to get a deal done.

McPake joins the likes of Kai Kennedy as youngsters who had fairly high expectations of them when they made their initial break into the first team, but have seen the progress as a Gers player stall amid multiple loans.

Kennedy is set to exit at the expiry of his contract, with a host of teams interested, and it looks like his age mate could be about to get a new permanent home as well.

Alex Lowry is the next most notable on the conveyor belt of wide attackers coming out of the Rangers academy and looked very good under Giovanni van Bronckhorst last season but has somewhat disappeared this year.

It would be a shame to see him go the same way as his two predecessors by the time the teenager reaches 21, so the hope is that he is given more of an opportunity in the first team before then.

In other Rangers news, changes in the boardroom may have opened the club up to new investment amid rumours of interest from Asia.