GIO PLANS TO TAKE IT TO MAX
JAMES MAXWELL is set to be offered a new deal by Rangers despite admitting fears his time was up at Ibrox.
The 20-year-old has impressed on a loan at Ayr in the Championship this term.
Partick Thistle and Dunfermline wanted to buy Maxwell in this transfer window, while the Honest Men are keen for him to stay at Somerset. Rangers, however, have made it clear they want Maxwell to stick around Auchenhowie and will offer an extension beyond the end of this season.
It comes just days after Maxwell believed he would “probably need to leave Rangers” to guarantee first-team minutes, with Borna Barisic and Calvin
Bassey ahead of him for the left-back slot. But gaffer Giovanni van Bronckhorst and sporting director Ross Wilson are clearly keen to take another look at the defender.
Maxwell did well on loan at Queen of the South in the second tier last season and teed up the own-goal winner at the weekend as the Honest Men downed Arbroath.
“Morelos feels happy and he has scored a lot, so it’s looking good. I just want us, as a Rangers team, to become one machine. No exceptions are made for players.”
Van Bronckhorst has also paid a glowing tribute to keeper Allan McGregor, who was promoted into Dick Advocaat’s squad while the Dutchman was still a player more than 20 years ago.
In an interview with Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the manager said: “In my last season at Rangers, before I was sold to Arsenal, Allan joined the squad as a great goalkeeping talent.
“He has also played abroad in England and Turkey but especially many years with Rangers.
“He still makes amazing saves and is a real added value to the team. It’s nice to have a guy like that in the club. He and our kitman Jimmy Bell were the only faces I knew from my time as a player.”
Van Bronckhorst has been delighted with his own start to life in the Rangers dugout, rattling off eight wins from nine games to maintain a six-point gap over Celtic in the Premiership and reach the knockout stages of the Europa League.
While Ange Postecoglou is tooling up for the second half of the season by embarking on a major January recruitment drive, van Bronckhorst has brought in just one new face – James Sands – while also sanctioning Nathan Patterson’s £11million sale to Everton.
But van Bronckhorst insists he is not losing sleep over Celtic’s midseason shopping spree and has played down the loss of Patterson by describing him as a “back-up” player at Ibrox.
He said: “I don’t care what other clubs do. This was a win-win situation. Patterson was a ‘back up player’, basically we don’t get any weaker. He was sold for a record amount and that fits the longterm vision of the club.”
Meanwhile, Salford City have made a move to sign Stephen Kelly on loan. The English League Two side are in talks with the Ibrox side over a potential deal.