STANDARD LIEGE have rejected a bid from Rangers for midfielder Nicolas Raskin.
Boss Michael Beale completed his first switch of the January transfer window when Todd Cantwell put pen-to-paper on a long-term deal earlier this week.
But the move for Raskin remains in deadlock and Rangers will now need to go back to the negotiating table after Liege rebuffed an initial approach.
The Belgian youth internationalist has been heading for the exit door in Liege for some time after falling out of favour with former Celtic boss Ronny Deila.
Rangers have been long time admirers of Raskin and Beale confirmed that he was keen to do a deal for the 21-year-old ahead of the Scottish Cup clash with St Johnstone at the weekend.
Beale said: "A player I remember a lot from the time we played Standard Liege [in October 2020 in the Europa League]. He missed the first game against Rangers that night when Kemar Roofe scored that amazing goal but he played in the second leg.
"He is a player I am aware of, a very good player who is obviously out of contract in the summer and is attracting a lot of attention. There is an interest from us but I am sure there is from a number of clubs."
That interest has been stepped up in recent days but Rangers and Liege remain apart in their valuations and further discussions will now need to be held if a deal is to be done.
READ MORE: Michael Beale details Filip Helander's Rangers timeline and 'regrets'
The capture of Raskin would be a significant coup for Beale as he looks to make his mark on the squad that he inherited from Giovanni van Bronckhorst last month.
Beale will address the media once again on Friday ahead of the Premiership fixture with St Johnstone and he could hand Cantwell his debut against Callum Davidson's side.
“I am extremely happy to welcome Todd to Rangers," Beale said of the former Canaries playmaker. "He is a player that is fully aligned to our playing style and we believe he will be a key player for the club in the coming seasons.
“I am looking forward to working with him on the pitch this week and integrating him into our fantastic football club.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel