Rangers wary of making 'irresponsible' transfer decision over emerging ace as board's January intentions outlined

Patrick Stewart has revealed that Rangers will look to bolster their first-team squad with “one, possibly two” new signings rather than “three or four” in the January transfer window as the Ibrox chief executive seeks to avoid another “quick fix”.

Stewart confirmed under-pressure boss Philippe Clement won’t be force to sell Moroccan striker Hamza Igamane or other valuable assets in order to fund more deals this month, with the Belgian currently in the market for central defensive reinforcements amid an influx of injuries.

Clement also needs further additions in other areas as looks to transform the club’s on-field fortunes and get supporters back onside after a dismal first half of the campaign on the domestic scene.

Addressing the media for the first time since his appointment as chief executive last month, Stewart made it clear that Rangers will look of offload any unwanted players in the coming weeks. However, summer signing Igamane will NOT be heading for the exit door as the board bid to retain their best young talent.

“We don’t want to sell Hamza in January,” he admitted. “We want him to be here for the second part of the season. I’ll be very clear on that. I think I would be told it was irresponsible if we sold a player. There’s always a balance, but January is not typically a window in which those sorts of transactions take place.

“We’re always, as a board, going to be looking at the long-term and striking a balance in the long-term. That’s our duty, but Hamza’s only came into the team and started scoring, and we want him to be here for the second part of the season, as I’m sure all the supporters do as well.”

Stewart also outlined the profile of player that the Light Blues are looking to target as they attempt to make significant improvements to their trading model going forward. He added Clement is ‘aligned’ with the plans in place.

“We’re got players that are coming back from injury, we’ve got players that are contributing far more and you’ve seen they’re contributing far more in the second quarter of the season,” he said. “Three of them - Hamza (Igamane), Jefte and (Nedim) Bajrami - have contributed far more in the second quarter of the season.

“We’d expect that development to continue into the second half of the season. And we had players out for a large part of the first half of the season that only just come back from injury. We’ve got players that are injured at the moment that will be coming back so we actually have a large squad.

“Just to be clear I’ve not said that we’re not doing business but we’ll only do business that’s right for the long-term benefit of the club. A quick fix I just don’t want believe is the responsible thing for us to be doing as an executive team and for me to be doing as a CEO. The question of whether or not we do business is about both looking at the short-term impact but it’s also going to have a long-term benefit as well.”