Go for it Murty – Rangers need to bid more than £350,000 and get this deal done

Why Rangers Need To Bid More Than £350,000 And Get The Deal For Jordan Jones Done

Rangers have reportedly bid £350,000 for Northern Ireland international Jordan Jones. However, it appears that the bid has been dismissed out of hand by Kilmarnock. Manager Steve Clarke has said it was easy to turn down the Ibrox club’s bid for the 23-year-old winger, who now has just 18 months left on his current contract at Rugby Park.

Clarke has intimated that his club didn’t even need to discuss the bid as it is way lower than what they would expect for Jones. The manager says that Rangers’ bid was a long way short of the mark but given that we are dealing in hundreds of thousands in Scotland rather than tens of millions, it’s hard to say what that “mark” really is.

At this level, a bid of around £500,000 or £600,000 would look significantly higher but in the grand scheme of things, it is still not earth-shattering money for Rangers and especially so if they end up in Europe or win the title in a year or two.

To his great credit, Clarke has reminded everyone that Kilmarnock, in the past, have always been willing to sell their best players for the right price. So clearly, a deal can still be done if Rangers just get their hand in their pocket.

It’s hard to know how much change is left in the jar at Ibrox, with them having signed Jason Cummings, Jamie Murphy, Sean Goss, Russell Martin and Greg Docherty on a variety of different contracts this winter. However, if they have real ambition in the short to medium term, then they still need to dig deep.

With 3 goals and 2 assists in 20 Premiership games, the left-footed Jones has been a star turn for Kilmarnock this season and would hit a new level with Rangers. So I can see why his club wants more money for him. I’m sure that the Glasgow club will remind their Ayrshire counterparts during the negotiations that they paid nothing for Jones when he arrived from Middlesbrough. So anything they receive is essentially clear profit.

That said, they do not have to sell him just yet and the buying club are the ones asking questions. Hence, I would say that anything under an extortionate fee should simply be stumped up by Rangers to carry on evolving this squad.