Rangers’ pursuit of Liverpool winger Ryan Kent has been given three significant boosts with some major updates which may strength Rangers’ likelihood of securing the 22-year old for at least another season.

Kent was a revelation at Ibrox after a slow start last campaign, and won Young Player of the Year against competition including current Rangers winger Jake Hastie, and it had looked certain he was heading off to Aston Villa once Liverpool slapped a £12M price tag on his head.

But circumstances have dramatically changed in the past week for Kent to now acknowledge that returning to Rangers is quite likely.

Initially, PL newboys Aston Villa pulled out, clearly deciding the £12M value was too high, reducing Kent’s options, but the latest development sees Championship giants Leeds join their Birmingham friends in withdrawing from the race on similar grounds.

And those two alterations have led to Kent admitting another season at Ibrox is a ‘possibility’.

In Kent’s defence, he has to think about his own future – his priority would be to find a permanent contract at a club which wants to use him. As promising as he is, he simply isn’t good enough for Liverpool which demands forwards of world class capability. Kent is some way off that.

But in order to develop further, he certainly needs high standard first-team football. He will get that at Ibrox, even with misgivings about the standard of the SPL.

But with both Leeds and Aston Villa pulling out, it leaves only Rangers as the sole suitor trying to get the winger, unless, of course, Liverpool dramatically haul the asking price down.

For now, everyone plays the waiting game. Liverpool wait to see if anyone will come in to meet their asking price, Kent waits for the same, and Rangers wait to see if the terrain shifts again to give Kent the nudge into the direction of Ibrox that he needs.

Until then, it is literally a case of wait, wait, wait.