McKAY SNUB
Rangers winger rejects first offer to extend deal
BARRIE McKAY has turned down an offer to extend his current Rangers deal. Sportsmail understands the Ibrox club tendered a pay rise and another two years on the 22-year-old’s existing deal last month. With a year to run on the current agreement, however, McKay (below) rejected an opening gambit after discussions between the club and his representatives opened in February. Linked with a move to Bundesliga side RB Leipzig in the January window, the former Under-21 international earned his first senior Scotland cap in a friendly defeat to France last June and can talk to interested clubs about a pre-contract agreement from January, 2018. Pedro Caixinha has yet to show his hand on which players he wants to keep. The new Rangers manager met Michael O’Halloran yesterday, telling the attacker to train away from the first-team squad after he missed an Under-20s game against Hearts in Stirling. Doubts also remain
From Back Page over the futures of Kenny Miller — who helped beat Aberdeen 3-0 on Sunday with a double —and defender Clint Hill. Despite parking McKay talks until the summer, the Ibrox side are likely to return to the table with an increased offer rather than allow the contract of one of their top talents to run down. Rangers striker Joe Dodoo, meanwhile, claims Sunday’s victory at Pittodrie was no surprise — because the Ibrox team are better than Aberdeen. Dodoo hit the third in a five-minute goal rush in the north east. Aberdeen remain nine points clear in second place with six matches of the Premiership season left, but former Leicester striker Dodoo said: ‘We weren’t surprised we beat them because we are better than them no matter what anyone says. Sometimes, we aren’t winning games, but we do have more than them and if we exploit the right spaces, do the right things and make the right decisions, play as a team and continue to work hard, we should be up there. ‘I am happy because we got the three points and we hadn’t won for a while. It was obviously brilliant to come on and score. ‘However, the most important thing was to get the points on the board.’ Aberdeen had been on top before Miller struck the first of his two goals in the 79th minute, but Dodoo was confident of making an impression as a late substitute. ‘I could see what needed to change at that time of the game because I think we were really narrow and playing into their hands a little bit more,’ said Dodoo. ‘All I had to do was just make the pitch bigger, just go wide and stay wide and if I made the pitch as big as possible then our midfielders could get on the ball and start moving the ball. ‘That then would make it harder for them to get the ball off us because the gaps between us would become so big that they couldn’t press us as much as they were. ‘I knew I had to go on the pitch and exploit the spaces and, luckily, we did that and came away with a big victory.’