Rangers have been told they must listen to offers for Nicolas Raskin and avoid leaving themselves open to losing another major talent for way less than his market value.

Former Ibrox midfielder Andy Halliday, who has just penned a fresh contract at Motherwell, has witnessed at close quarters just how important Raskin has become for the Light Blues and knows why supporters want him nailed down on a new deal.

The 24-year-old Belgium international has two years left on his current contract and Rangers bosses will have a big decision to make on his future this summer in terms of securing his value with a long-term agreement or opening themselves up to a sale.

‘Rangers have found a way to hold onto their assets for too long previously, to the point that they don’t then get a fee for them – or certainly don’t demand a fee for them that their (value) once was,’ said Halliday.

‘I don’t think there is anything wrong with dangling the carrot by offering Nico Raskin a long-term contract, but I don’t think it is one where you should shy away from welcoming offers.

Rangers fought out a 1-1 draw with bitter rivals Celtic last weekend at Ibrox

Rangers midfielder Nicolas Raskin has been a star performer for the club this season

‘If you can get the type of fee you can command for a guy who has just made his Belgium debut and got man-of-the-match in that game, you should be willing to listen to those offers – especially with how big a transition we expect in the Rangers squad.’

Halliday is an admirer of Raskin and thought he was one of Rangers’ stand-out performers in the weekend’s 1-1 Old Firm draw at Ibrox.

‘I thought Raskin was excellent again,’ Halliday told Radio Clyde. ‘When Rangers couldn’t get any control within the game, he stamped his authority all over it with the amount of interceptions he won, the amount of turnovers he forced, the amount of times he drove Rangers up the pitch.

‘For being at the bottom of the diamond, shall we say, he put himself in so many advanced areas. He actually had most shots for Rangers individually as well. He was a player who just showed his character to try and make things happen.’

Union Bears going to print in battle over tifo

Ultras group Union Bears are on a collision course with Rangers management – after launching a special T-shirt featuring the weekend’s controversial tifo featuring former manager Graeme Souness brandishing a shotgun.

The Ibrox board reacted angrily to the pre-match display ahead of the 1-1 Old Firm clash on Sunday – which featured a picture of Souness looking down the barrel of a gun from a photoshoot staged during the 1982 World Cup alongside the message ‘Take aim at the rebel scum’ – and are reviewing procedure for similar projects in future.

However, despite club bosses branding the Souness tifo ‘unacceptable’, Union Bears have doubled down by selling T-shirts bearing the artwork and inflammatory slogan on their website for £20.

The tifo displayed by the Rangers fans at the Old Firm derby was criticised by club chiefs

The fans’ group had previously put out a post on social media detailing the £5300 cost of the tifo with the words ‘national meltdown – priceless’.

Rangers have vowed to take a stronger line on pre-match displays in future and are unlikely to be impressed by the attitude of the Union Bears section of the Copland Stand.

In the wake of the Old Firm game, a club spokesperson said: ‘We acknowledge that the tifo displayed prior to kick-off crossed a line and was unacceptable.

‘Our approach to supporter displays has always been built on trust, with the responsibility placed on groups to exercise good judgement.

‘We will reflect on how these displays are managed and engage with supporter groups to ensure the right balance of trust, responsibility and oversight is maintained moving forward. Rangers is proud of its passionate fanbase, and we all share a duty to protect the standards and reputation of our club.’

Danilo must prove he is money well spent 

Two years ago this month, Danilo was a title winner under Arne Slot as Feyenoord celebrated becoming Dutch champions for only the second time this century.

Just two months later, he became Michael Beale’s headline signing of a busy summer with a £6million move to Ibrox and lucrative five-year contract.

Danilo cuts a lonely figure after Rangers’ European exit at the hands of Athletic Bibao

On Sunday, Rangers’ recruitment failings were never more apparent than when the Brazilian entered the fray of a drab Old Firm derby as a 93rd-minute substitute.

How has such a high-profile arrival been allowed to stagnate quite so alarmingly?

Of course, injury has played a significant part. The striker’s first season at the club was decimated firstly by a broken cheekbone and then, more seriously, by a knee injury that plagued him for almost a year and required two operations.

However, with the exception of a shoulder issue that saw him miss around a month early this year, Danilo HAS been fit for the majority of this season but has largely played third fiddle to Cyriel Dessers and Hamza Igamane.

Upon returning to the first-team picture in early November, he eased his way back to peak fitness and a four-goal spell inside six games — topped off by his first Old Firm strike in the 3-0 win at home to Celtic in January. It suggested that Rangers fans were finally about to enjoy the elite player they were promised.

However, Danilo has failed to find the net since then, and returned from that minor shoulder setback in time to feature in Philippe Clement’s final match in charge, the 2-0 home defeat to St Mirren.

Since the arrival of interim boss Barry Ferguson, who has admitted his training regime may not be to the Brazilian’s liking, Danilo has started only once. That was when he was hooked at half-time with Rangers trailing Aberdeen 2-0 at Pittodrie. 

His blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Old Firm cameo in a match where the Ibrox side were crying out for attacking endeavour just felt like the ultimate indignity, and rounded off an unsatisfactory second season.

Danilo is the fourth-highest paid player in the squad earning a reported £26,000 a week

With three years left on his deal, and at a peak age of 26 for a man in his position, Rangers fans may yet see the best of Danilo under the next regime, whoever that may be.

Frankly speaking, they’re going to have to. Danilo is the squad’s fourth highest earner on a reported £26,000 a week. With that kind of money invested in him, a bigger contribution to the cause is an absolute non-negotiable.

Potter determined to keep the pressure on in title fight 

Jo Potter says her Rangers team will keep pushing ‘until the last second’ as the title race enters its final stretch.

After two successive league defeats, a 6-0 thrashing of Motherwell on Sunday, when Katie Wilkinson scored five of the goals, kept their hopes alive.

With three games left, Rangers are five points behind leaders Hibs, but the Edinburgh side are due at Ibrox on the final day of the season.

Before that game a week on Sunday, Potter’s side are away to Celtic this weekend and Hearts on Wednesday. It is a tight schedule that leaves no room for error.

Rangers women’s manager Jo Potter is refusing to throw in the towel in the league

While Rangers are the outsiders in a three-way race that also includes second-placed Glasgow City, Potter is encouraged by her team’s comprehensive triumph at Broadwood on Sunday.

‘I asked the players to step up and out and give a better performance than we have done,’ she said. ‘We needed that one and we’ve got to use that to kick on.

‘We’ve got to try and win every single game we go into and we’ve got to keep the pressure on and keep pushing until the last second.’

It is shaping up to be an exciting fortnight for Rangers, who also have a Scottish Cup final against Glasgow City to look forward to. They have already won the Sky Sports Cup this season.

While a treble may turn out to be beyond them, Rangers could do with at least one more trophy to show for their efforts. They have certainly given it a go, individually as well as collectively.

Laura Berry’s contribution was recognised on Sunday night when she was voted PFA Scotland SWPL Young Player of the Year. The 17-year-old forward has been impressive for Potter’s team since returning to the club after a loan spell at Motherwell.

Old Firm clash is just too tame for Super Ally 

Ally McCoist has made great play of the discipline count in Sunday’s derby at Ibrox, which failed to uphold the fixture’s proud tradition of onfield thuggery.

A rare flashpoint in last Sunday’s derby, which appears to have lost some of its lustre

While the former Rangers manager and striker is not advocating all-out war, he expects a little more passion from the game’s most explosive encounter.

While the current Rangers boss, Barry Ferguson, was booked for a touchline outburst, the only yellows on the pitch were late ones for Bailey Rice and Johnny Kelly, the latter for kicking the ball away.

‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ joked McCoist. ‘I was embarrassed. By the way, here’s the best of it. The two boys that got booked were teenagers and they were substitutes!

‘[For] the older generation, that’s the biggest embarrassment the Old Firm has had!’

All of which is good knockabout stuff from McCoist, but he failed to point that a shortage of bookings in games between Celtic and Rangers is no longer unusual.

In fact, it is becoming commonplace. In each of the last four seasons, there has been at least one game between them that has produced only two yellows.

Others have had three or four. Only the cup finals, when more is at stake, have lived up to the hype-fuelled narrative peddled by TV companies.

Even sendings-off are hard to come by these days. In three of the last four seasons, there have been no red cards in any of the games between the two Glasgow clubs.

Whether that’s healthy is for people like McCoist to debate, but one thing’s for sure: the Old Firm derby isn’t quite the horror show it used to be.