Michael Beale and Rangers have confirmed there is no interest in Antwerp’s William Pacho, in a move which may disappoint some given the defender’s excellent reputation, but is probably due to Monaco’s interest pricing Rangers out of a move for him.

The young defender, whose stock is rising aggressively in world football, is under contract for quite a while in Belgium, but is attracting interest not least from Monaco, and while his market value is circa £4M the Monte Carlo interest could see the Jupiler side demand at least double that amid a potential bidding war.

Which means Rangers are completely priced out and won’t pursue that one at all.

The reality is Rangers have absolutely no budget this window, with any notion of a big-money signing a complete fiction, but as in the case of Cantwell and Davies it’s possible to find top-quality players on Bosman deals, if negotiations can be done to bring that level of quality to Govan.

John Lundstram of course was a top class Bosman, a market value of around £10M, and he cost nothing, so these gems are not impossible to find.

But the likes of Pacho is completely beyond Rangers’ budget, and with rich sides like Monaco, who have just come into £35M after a recent sale, as competition, someone like Pacho is a non-starter really.

Rangers barely have £2M to spend in this window, it’s essentially peanuts and we can’t do much when a player is under a long-term contract, no matter how much we might want him – so Pacho is a no-go.

And the club and sources have confirmed that now, as Rangers move on to other defensive targets who can hopefully help to shore up a backline which might now be going in the right direction but definitely needs more quality players in there to strengthen it.

Filip Helander is nowhere near returning yet, but Beale believes John Souttar isn’t far away. Meaning we’ll have five options for defence soon enough.

Sadly none of them will be Pacho but hopefully he’s not the last defensive target Rangers would be aiming for.