Rangers director Steven Gerrard has made no secret of his desire to maintain veteran hitman Jermain Defoe in Ibrox towards the end of his current loan bargain — but it seems like there could be a snag in procuring Gerrard’s former England team-mate in Ibrox long-term.
Defoe will become a free agent in the summer when his Bournemouth deal expires at exactly the exact same time as his temporary Ibrox contract and Gerrard and Defoe have insisted they want to expand the striker’s stay in Glasgow.
However, with Defoe able to agree on a pre-contract for quite a few weeks, the absence of any movement on it hints that the thing may not be going as expected.
There have been rumours of discussions with Defoe on a permanent move for some time now, however, while the Gers have procured others to new deals such as Allan McGregor, but there has not been any real movement on it for some time.
It might be the case that both sides are just taking their time and ensuring it’s the ideal move for everybody involved or talks might even have been put on hold entirely until later in the year.
There are just one or two potential stumbling blocks to getting a deal done however, with Defoe’s Bournemouth salary well beyond the range of the Gers if they would like to maintain the veteran.
But at this stage of his career, Defoe’s bank balance probably reads more like a phone number so the former England striker could be quite pleased to take a pay cut to stay at Ibrox.
Hopefully, Rangers can find a deal done to maintain Defoe in Ibrox beyond the summer and have the veteran around to assist the likes of Alfredo Morelos.
