Teamtalk today claim Galatasaray have made enquires about Rangers captain James Tavernier, and Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq also remain interested in the skipper.

Rangers begin their assault on the Premiership at Rugby Park today, but this new speculation over the club’s right back, particularly from Turkey, somewhat comes out of the blue.

As for Saudi Arabia, Gerrard has been a keen admirer of Tavernier for many years, of course making him the captain back in the day when the former Liverpool icon first took over at Ibrox, so we’d be very interested to know Michael Beale’s reaction to a bid.

Indeed, Rangers’ current boss has already challenged Gerrard to make an attempt for the 31-year-old, with tongue only half in cheek at the time.

But with the Turk giants also getting in the hunt, that makes this story a bit more real.

For a club to actually make an official enquiry about a player’s availability and interest in the potential of leaving is a big step, meaning there is tangible and concrete interest in the player.

The big part here of course is that this is the transfer window – all the football rules and laws which protect clubs from rivals tapping their players are off during this period, and any club can directly contact Tavernier, not even his agent, to ask him if he’s interested.

And we can’t know if Gala did so or went to his agent first, or even the club, but they are definitely interested.

As for Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq, they recently signed a couple of ex-Celtic players, and immediately got teased by Gerrard who remains a Rangers man through and through despite the manner of his exit, so he’s certainly keeping his eye out for Rangers, his old mate Mick Beale, and the players he might be wishing to make a move for.

It does look like Tavernier is attracting interest, and time will tell how much of that ramps up into something serious and tangible.