Official Rangers partner fumes as transfer development emerges in last 12 hours

Heart and Hand have reacted as Brentford striker Ivan Toney revealed that he turned down the chance to join Rangers due to the lack of game time.

The England international gave a tell-it-all interview to the Diary of a CEO YouTube channel where he made revelations about his career and his betting ban.

He also admitted that moving to Ibrox was on the cards had there been guaranteed game time for him in Glasgow.

Explaining his decision to Steven Bartlett on The Diary Of A CEO podcast [21 August, 25m 45s], Toney said: “I did speak to other clubs. I actually went up to Rangers and spoke with the manager there, which was Steven Gerrard at the time.

“We spoke a bit, but there were two strikers at the time and they were looking to bring another one in, so there would’ve been four strikers.

“I think the formation that they played, the majority of the time was one striker up top. So I would have been third choice, something like this.

“We went to Celtic, we spoke to Celtic and I think it was the same there. I’m one of three strikers or something like this. I think at the time when I was moving, I wanted to be the main guy.”

Heart and Hand, the club’s official partners wrote on Twitter, “There’s one that got away. Dammit.”

At that time, Toney was well within his rights to deserve regular game time as he was extremely talented and was scoring goals regularly.

Rangers perhaps felt that he wasn’t ready but should’ve changed their mind once they saw him thriving at Peterborough United.

He would’ve certainly preferred moving to big side playing in Europe over Brentford who weren’t even among the favourites to get promoted.

However, Gers missed the trick and he moved to West London to become one of the best strikers in the Premier League.

Last season, he was third to only Erling Haaland and Harry Kane in the Golden Boot standings and that’s at a club that started the campaign as one of the relegation candidates.

He would’ve been so much better than Alfredo Morelos and without the unprofessionalism that eventually saw everyone at the club happy to see him go.

Brendan Rodgers sees Rangers job recommendation backfire

Brendan Rodgers has, like Michael Beale, always been a journalist’s dream, offering print ready quotes every bit as often as the Rangers manager.

The Celtic manager might be regretting his latest comments after being dumped out of the league cup by Derek McInnes and Kilmarnock.

Brendan Rodgers is immediately under pressure and three points for Rangers in a couple of week’s time could make things very interesting.

Speaking before his Rugby Park humbling, Rodgers was asked about his opposite number and was effusive in his praise for the Kilmarnock boss:

“Aye, there is no doubt about that. He knows the game, he is good with players, he knows what he wants and when you are well organised.

“He was very close to getting Rangers a few years ago and why could he not manage Rangers?

“He is a former player there, he was a really good player, part of a successful era of the club.

“There is absolutely no doubt that could be one for him in the future or beyond that.

“There is no doubt he is an outstanding manager.”

Bearing in mind that McInnes’s record against Celtic is appalling, these remarks come across as more than a little patronising.

It’s also a thinly veiled assumption that Rangers don’t have higher aspirations than maangers like McInnes.

That Rangers don’t want more than a manager who can set up a side that is effective at what it does.

Destroying, disrupting and doing little to entertain.

Brendan Rodgers is right though, McInnes was close to the Rangers job but he decided that it wasn’t for him.

You don’t get that offer twice and if ever there was an indication that someone shouldn’t be a Rangers manager, it’s turning it down when you are the first pick.