Rangers prepared to wait for Kyle Lafferty

Record Sport has reported the Ibrox club is not in a hurry to up its offer of £200,000 for the Northern Ireland player.

Hearts, who reportedly want £1million, rejected the offer and Lafferty and his representatives met with owner Ann Budge on Tuesday to discuss his situation.

The 30-year-old has not handed in a transfer request and the meeting was said to have been amicable, although Lafferty is understood to favour a move back to Rangers.

Meanwhile, Chris Sutton has warned the Light Blues againast signing Lafferty, who is in the final year of his contract.

The BT Sport pundit said Lafferty would be an “underwhelming” signing for the club.

He said: “The signing of Lafferty would be underwhelming and he’s not as good as Alfredo Morelos. I know Morelos is criticised for his finishing, but he’s still a handful.

“Lafferty is a bit of a nutter at times and although he may turn out to be a good influence, why would you throw a bit of a timebomb into the dressing room at this stage when everything is going smoothly?

“Lafferty is the type of player who has to play regularly and he has a better chance of doing that at Hearts than Rangers. It won’t click into place for Steven Gerrard overnight, we’ll be better able to judge him at Christmas.

“Deep down, he and Gary McAllister will want to win the league – and believe they can do it.”

Sutton has also urged Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers to keep hold of Deryck Boyata to ward off a possible challenge from Rangers.

he added: “Celtic hold all the aces but they still need to strengthen in the central-defensive area.

“Celtic must keep Boyata. Why would you want to get rid of him when you don’t know what the challenge from Rangers will be like yet?”