Gers can’t afford to let more rising stars slip through their fingers

IT wouldn’t quite have been up there with Paul Pogba returning to Manchester United for a world record £89million just five years after leaving Old Trafford for nothing.

But if Rangers made a serious attempt for the £300,000 signature of St Mirren’s Lewis Morgan it would still have been an admission they were wrong to let him go in the first place.

That is probably the biggest question for Light Blues fans as they look set to miss out to their great rivals on one of the country’s hottest prospects.

And all this in the week Harry Cochrane – another who slipped through net at Rangers – created headlines with his goal for Hearts in the 4-0 romp that ended Celtic’s unbeaten run.

Scotland Under-21 starlet Morgan was on former Rangers gaffer Pedro Caixinha’s radar and has been linked with the club since the departure of the Portuguese flop boss.

Despite the winger being a diehard Gers fan there was only one winner when rivals Celtic entered the race and rolled out the red carpet by inviting him and Dundee defender Jack Hendry to Parkhead for the recent Champions League clash with Anderlecht.

Given the contrast in the state of the sides it’s no surprise Morgan is set to opt for the chance to work with Brendan Rodgers instead of a club without a permanent boss after interim boss Graeme Murty was yesterday given the green light to carry on until the end of the season.

The Ibrox legions might struggle to accept any Rangers fan moving to Celtic but some will surely accept in terms of career development it is the obvious choice.

What supporters might find harder to accept is the fact Morgan was allowed to leave Murray Park in the first place back in 2013.

Morgan previously said: “I was told at Under-17’s level that I’d be getting a full-time contract at Rangers but after the Christmas break some of the younger boys got playing ahead of me.

“At the end of the season I went in for a meeting with Jim Sinclair (head of youth) ready to sign a two-year deal but he talked me out of signing.”

And on Jambos teenage sensation Cochrane, Hearts academy manager Roger Arnott said: “Harry was at Rangers until Under-13s but he saw a better pathway here and joined us.”

Rangers are going to find it tough to compete with rivals once players such as Morgan and Cochrane have attracted attention and that makes identifying future stars at a younger age so important.

That is why frustrated Light Blue legions are entitled to ask why those two in particular were allowed to leave, especially at a time when the club should have been putting more emphasis on youth after the club’s financial collapse.

Academy chief Craig Mulholland can rightly be proud of Ross McCrorie’s emergence this season but can’t argue Morgan and Cochrane wouldn’t have done a job, albeit Sinclair, now in charge of Sunderland’s youth, was in control at the time of those decisions.

Ever since snatching Maurice Johnston from under their noses, Rangers took great enjoyment in beating Celtic in transfer tug-of-wars with the likes of Gordan Petric, Nacho Novo and Dariusz Adamczuk, even if the latter is one they would probably rather have lost.

But in more recent years there has been only one winner as the likes of Scott Brown, Kris Commons and Scott Allan moved to Celtic.

Morgan could be added to that list and regardless of how seriously Rangers attempted to lure him to Ibrox he was still allowed to leave the club and would be an asset right now.

He was a former season ticket-holder at Ibrox and the fact he could soon be on the opposite side of the great divide must leave Gers fans asking questions as to why it was allowed to happen.

Lessons must surely be learned to ensure mistakes like that aren’t repeated with the next batch of rising stars.

Despite Lewis being a huge Rangers fan, there was only one winner when Celtic entered race