As part of a bid to strength the side for 56 and UCL participation, Steven Gerrard’s work in the transfer market is getting more serious by the day amidst reports confirming he’s interested in Nimes star Zinedine Ferhat.

The 28-year old midfielder/winger is under contract for the Ligue 1 side, and has a current market value in the £7M range, but Nimes representatives have revealed contact has been made over the Algerian international from Ibrox.

Unfortunately his CV doesn’t exactly obviously burst off the page in brilliance, with the bulk of his career at Algerian national level before getting the move to France’s second tier, only to finally hit the top flight in 2019 at 26 – but if we look deeper we start to see why our boss wants him.

His numbers this season are decent, 6 goals and 10 assists in 33 outings, and there’s actually a reason for that.

Ferhat is an utility ‘right’ man, with the ability to operate as both a right CM and a RW, which would give Stevie a tonne of versatility on that area of the pitch, and when he plays on the wings his numbers do ramp up – 3 goals and 4 assists in 14 outings in that slot last season.

So is he good enough? Stevie appears to think so, and appears willing to shell out several million to secure him.

Whether Nimes will get the reported market value is another matter, but a solid £4M bid would probably persuade them.

As for the ‘type’ of player he is? All about the dribbling, baby. Yes, this guy is superb on the ball, and makes brilliant use of space and pace to decimate defences, and indeed his stats for that are among the best in France, which is why he’s caught Stevie’s eye.

Our manager loves his quick technical players, and Ferhat excels in that area. He fits the mould of the Ryan Kent and Kemar Roofe our manager prefers, and his movement is top quality.

If Rangers do want this guy, we trust the manager and his vision.