Frustrated Rangers are left in limbo over Cooper
Millwall ignore second bid of £3m
Rangers are growing frustrated in their pursuit of Millwall central defender Jake Cooper as they await a response to their improved bid for the player.
The Ibrox club are understood to have made a second offer in the region of £3 million for Cooper earlier this week, having had their initial approach firmly rejected by The Lions.
The English Championship club’s manager Neil Harris has publicly insisted none of his first team are for sale this summer but that did not discourage Rangers boss Steven Gerrard as he looks to strengthen his central defensive options.
Millwall are currently at a pre-season training camp in Portugal and have yet to acknowledge Rangers’ latest communication.
Gerrard and Rangers’ director of football Mark Allen have a list of alternative central defensive signing targets but, for the moment, 6ft 3ins Cooperis their priority.
The 23-year-old joined Millwall from Reading last summer and was an influential performer in a season when they narrowly missed out on the play-offs. Cooper, a former England under-20 international, is under contract at the New Den until 2020.
Gerrard has already recruited two central defenders since taking charge at Rangers, Conthe nor Goldson and Nikola Katic from Brighton and Slaven Belupo respectively for a combined fee of around £5 million.
But while Gerrard expects Goldson to become an immediate mainstay, he has urged caution over Katic, 21, describing the Croatian as a “baby” in footballing terms who must be managed carefully.
Following the loss under freedom of contract of David Bates to Hamburg and the departure of Portuguese veteran Bruno Alves to Parma this week, Rangers are short of numbers in central defence.
Fabio Cardoso remains at club but the 24-year-old, signed by former boss Pedro Caixinha last year, will be allowed to move on.
Gerrard has also firmly ruled out the prospect of Ross Mccrorie being used in central defence, as he was last season by both Caixinha and his successor Graeme Murty. Describing that as a “careless” decision which could have “destroyed” Mccrorie, Gerrard sees the 20-year-old only as a holding midfielder.