£3m fee agreed for Goldson
● Ibrox club hope to seal deal for Brighton defender early next week but hitch over move for Reds midfielder
Rangers have agreed a fee with Brighton and Hove Albion for central defender Connor Goldson and will now open talks with the player. It is understood the Ibrox club will pay Brighton around £3 million if they can agree personal terms with the defender.
New Rangers manager Steven Gerrard also wants to bring in Liverpool youngster Ovie Ejaria on loan. The deal is taking longer than expected to complete but Ejaria, 20, is still expected to follow Gerrard north from Anfield.
Rangers have opened talks with Connor Goldson after agreeing a £3 million fee with Brighton and Hove Albion – but they will have to wait to land Liverpool youngster Ovie Ejaria.
The Ibrox club finally reached an acceptable valuation for centre-back Goldson at lunchtime yesterday following weeks of haggling.
That has now paved the way for Rangers officials to start negotiations with the 25-yearold and his representatives.
The Glasgow side are confident he can be persuaded to join Steven Gerrard’s revolution but, with a medical still to be organised, they do not expect the deal to be signed off until early next week.
Their hopes of luring Liverpool midfielder Ejaria to Glasgow on a season-long loan have hit a snag, however,
Rangers were hoping to announce the 20-year-old as Gerrard’s fourth summer signing following the captures of Scott Arfield, Allan Mcgregor and Jamie Murphy.
He is still expected to follow Gerrard north from Anfield, but it could again take a few days to get the move across the line.
Rangers will hope the likely arrival of Goldson will help plug their leaky defence.
While the Ibrox side topped the Premiership scoring charts last term, the 50 league goals they conceded was worse than any of their topsix rivals.
Bruno Alves, Fabio Cardosso, David Bates, Ross Mccrorie and Russell Martin were all tried out in the centre of defence as Pedro Caixinha and then Graeme Murty looked to tighten up without success.
New boss Gerrard will hope Goldson can finally provide the steady hand Rangers need.
The centre-back began his career with Shrewsbury and made over 100 appearances for them before moving to Brighton in summer 2015.
In February 2017, Goldson was discovered to have a heart defect and had to have preventative surgery, causing him to be sidelined for several months.
Consequently he has played just eight league matches over the course of the past two seasons.