Manager claims Rangers have not made bid for his £1m star after 15-goal season

Manager claims Rangers have not made bid for his £1m star after 15-goal season

Offers certainly are not in short supply. But have any arrived from Rangers?

That was one of the subjects discussed on Thursday when the future of a much-admired centre-forward was brought up in front of the manager who is understandably desperate to keep hold of his star man.

According to The Athletic, Rangers and Old Firm rivals Celtic are interested in a player who dominated Scottish football in 2023/24. Motherwell’s broad-shouldered number nine, Theo Bair, finished the season with 15 goals and six assists. One of those came against Rangers in March, when Bair made life difficult for Philippe Clement’s backline at Fir Park. Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell says a few offers have already arrived on his coffee table. But are any of those marked Rangers?

“There has been a lot of concrete interest in Theo. “There have been a couple of concrete bids from clubs in two of Europe’s top five leagues,” Kettlewell tells the Scottish Sun. “I will not mention any clubs or countries. But they have not come from within Scotland.”

Rangers, on the other hand, have plainly failed to translate their enthusiasm into action. That could change, however, with Cyriel Dessers’ likely exit to PAOK opening the way for another centre-forward to join RAF Rabat’s Hamza Igamane. According to Digi Sport, Albion Rrahmani’s camp has held contact with Gers director Nils Koppen. However, Rapid Bucharest is demanding roughly £5 million, which is significantly more than Motherwell is likely to pay for Bair. Meanwhile, HITC confirmed a few weeks ago that Championship clubs Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers, and Cardiff City are also interested. St Pauli, who were just promoted to the Bundesliga, are also in contention. “There’s lots of interest. I’ll be brutally honest, there has been tons of interest,” Kettlewell says, via The National.

I’ll be brutally honest, there has been lots of interest,” Kettlewell adds, via The National, Bair currently on Copa America duty with Canada. “We are in constant contact with big Theo as is his teammates and many of the staff.

“I don’t look at it any other way other than the fact that he’s a Motherwell player. He’s got another year on his contract and we’ve loved working with him. We would love that to continue.

Celtic also linked with 15-goal striker
Kettlewell does admit, however, that Motherwell may have no choice but to accept if they receive an offer they cannot turn down. Bair, after all, will be a free-agent in just 12 months’ time.

Rangers, meanwhile, recently brought in Connor Barron from Aberdeen. He is only the second player to move to Ibrox from a direct Scottish Premiership rival since Scott Wright made the trip from Pittodrie to Ibrox three-and-a-half years ago.

Bair would take that tally to three.

“Sometimes that situation is out with your control,” says former Ross County boss Kettlewell. “If somebody offers big money – and I mean big money – for anybody within your group at a club like Motherwell, it’s always got to be something that we consider.

“We don’t cry about it either. We are always trying to think about that next way forward.

“If that becomes a situation again, there will be nobody happier for the likes of Theo if it was something that he thought took him to the next stage of his career, as I have loved working with the lad. I really like him as a person.

“He is still very much ours until somebody puts something in front of us we can’t refuse.”

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