Derek Ferguson and James McFadden tells Rangers to sign Kevin van Veen immediately

Derek Ferguson and James McFadden have offered their verdict on Rangers links with Kevin van Veen, suggesting they would sign him “in a minute”.

The 32-year-old forward admitted that the Light Blues had been interested in signing him this summer as he looks to breathe new life into his career with a potential loan switch in January, having not ruled out a return to Scotland [Scottish Sun, 21 November].

Although a move to Ibrox didn’t happen over the summer transfer window, both Ferguson and McFadden agreed that Philippe Clement should be looking to sign him in January, suggesting he is already better than Cyriel Dessers.

Speaking on Open Goal (23 November, 49:40) Ferguson said: “I’d take him in a minute, I don’t understand why they never went in for him at the start of the season, but again that was Michael Beale.

“I think he’s good enough, he thinks he’s good enough and that’s the important thing. He’ll think, I can get into a Rangers side if they brought me back and I can score goals.

“It’s not just about last season, did you see the season before where he’d never scored that amount of goals, his general play, his link-up play everything else about him. It was a different class. That’s why I liked him, a bit of physicality.”

McFadden was quick to agree saying: “From what I’ve seen, he’s better than Dessers.”

Different dimension

Things have improved greatly at Ibrox this season since Clement arrived in Scotland, with the Belgian quickly undoing the mistakes of Beale to get the Light Blues winning and firing once again, but the squad still has a number of gaps that need to be filled.

Rangers look to finally have a consistent source of goals in Danilo, but both Dessers and Sam Lammers are continuing to struggle to find their feet in Glasgow, so it makes sense that both Ferguson and McFadden are so keen to see a new forward signed.

Van Veen was a consistent finisher for Motherwell last season, scoring 25 goals across the Scottish Premiership season and his physical presence at the top end of the field would offer a different style of play to anyone else in Clement’s ranks.

But at 32 he doesn’t fit the profile of Rangers’ player trading model, as he holds little to no sell-on value. If he could be signed on a loan until the end of the season to tide the Gers into the summer transfer window then a deal could make perfect sense.