RANGERS remain confident Jamie Murphy will join them on their trip to Florida despite a stall in talks which saw the player fail to travel with the team yesterday morning.
The 28-year-old had hoped to join Graeme Murty’s squad when they left Edinburgh for their two-game trip to Florida. But negotiations between Rangers and Brighton are still on-going and Murphy has yet to put pen-to-paper on a three-and-a-half year deal with his boyhood heroes.
However, Murty believed the deal would be done and the new signing would be able to travel within the next few days.
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“Jamie is desperate to come to the football club,” said the Rangers manager. “And we are doing everything we can behind the scenes to make sure he gets out to Florida and takes part in this camp.
“He would bring experience, he is a mature athlete, he is bringing quality, and is someone we think can contribute from the get-go.
“It is important we have more options in the attacking third. Jamie definitely brings that and, importantly, he is a Rangers fan and knows what the standards of his football club are all about. Touch wood it will all be done but, as with all things in football, you are never actually content until it is over the line. We are confident we can get the job done.”
If the club fail to agree terms, there is the possibility of Murphy going to Rangers on loan until the end of the season.
Murty has already completed a loan deal for midfielder Sean Goss as he looks to add to his squad for the second half of the Premiership campaign.
“We will react to whatever situations are upcoming and make sure we are in a position to react favourably and push forward,” he said. “We know there are areas that we would like to strengthen and we know there are areas where we are quite content.
“All football managers at this time of the year would say that more better players is better than less, so we are trying to strengthen the group and make sure the group are in good fettle going into the latter part of the season.”
Midfielder Andy Halliday and forward Michael O’Halloran returned to the Ibrox squad last week and were part of the group that made the trip Stateside yesterday.
Rangers will face Atletico and Corinthians in the Florida Cup in the coming days before they return to domestic action with the Scottish Cup clash against Fraserburgh this month.