Odds on favourites and massive bid tabled for striker – is Steven Gerrard getting serious?

This one has been doing the rounds for a while, but the last 24 hours have ramped up speculation over Swansea’s Oliver McBurnie amidst the winger being both odds on favourite to join Rangers and being the reported subject of a breathtaking £4M bid from Steven Gerrard.

The new manager doesn’t formally start till June but has confirmed that he has final say on all transfers, even if he, Mark Allen, Gary McAllister and Andy Scoulding will work together to identify targets.

Ergo, if Rangers have indeed put in a bid of that magnitude for the Scotland international, it would be a serious statement of intent by the board to support Gerrard in every way.

Rangers have not paid that region of transfer fee for any player since Nikica Jelavic in 2010, also for £4M, with the closest being the varying sums reported for Carlos Pena between £2.3M and £3.2M.

But this would be a pretty bold signing for Rangers to make, and a curious one.

McBurnie has never scored in the English Premier League for Swansea, or for anyone for that matter, and while his record in the Championship is pretty good, there is little about his stats for the Wales side in the top flight which immediately grabs us as stunning – but then, as a young winger/striker at the top level, he’s definitely developing and fared far better for Barnsley.

If Steven Gerrard wants McBurnie, it appears the board is eager to deliver him for him.