Ryan Kent has been used for clicks after ‘journalist’ Dean Jones made completely vague claims that the Rangers winger is being chased by English and German clubs and we should know by the end of the year what he’s decided to do.

This is literally meaningless – if Kent signs a deal, utterly unexpectedly, before the end of the year, fair enough, but if he does nothing, then ‘no news’ reveals absolutely nothing about his intentions and he may still shock horror sign a deal in 2023.

The reality is Jones, like everyone else, is guessing completely, and Kent’s chances of signing the deal he’s been offered are zero.

The one possibility Rangers have is to offer him better terms, because if Ryan Kent is to remain at Ibrox for a new contract, he is almost certainly waving goodbye to any chance of ever playing in the PL.

Joe Aribo did not want to take that chance, and did not sign a new deal – he would have been out of contract next May, and Rangers were content to get £10M for him one year earlier. Kent, however, has waited longer, and no bids have arrived, even if European clubs are tailing him (we know of a number of English and German sides to have monitored him).

So if Rangers do want to hold onto him longer, they’ll have to offer better terms because all English players want the Premier League and only hard cash and lots of it will persuade Kent to commit to Ibrox pretty much for the peak/rest of his career.

And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that – we would all do the same, in our lines of work, if offered a job with someone else while our existing employer wants to keep us and will increase our wage. Kent is no different, and criticism of this approach from fans is purely because fans think like fans, and not like employees or footballers.

In truth Rangers have to decide if Kent is value for money for increasing the offer, or if the club is content to let him potentially speak to new clubs in January.

But we’re not going to pretend we have a timeframe for when we’ll know by. Kent and Rangers will take the time they need to sort something out if they’re going to. But the chance of this being the case isn’t terribly high at present.

We watch and wait.