Glasgow Rangers boss Steven Gerrard lining up January bid for Nottingham Forest's England U21s defender

Joe WorrallJoe Worrall
Joe Worrall
Nottingham Forest defender Joe Worrall could be the subject of a January transfer bid from Glasgow Rangers after impressing Ibrox boss Steven Gerrard.

The 21-year-old is on a season’s loan at Scottish Premiership side Rangers and made his debut for the club in their Europa League tie at Villarreal on Thursday night. Rangers drew the game 2-2.

Gerrard is keen to tie Worrall down - along with fellow loan players Ovie Ejaria, Ryan Kent and Lassana Coulibaly - to longer term deals, having been pleased with their contributions so far.

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“We have to be respectful to their parent clubs but the players you’ve mentioned are already on my list,” Gerrard told the Daily Record. “We went for those players initially because we rate them very highly.

“Three of them - Ejaria, Kent and Coulibaly - have settled into the club really well. And Joe had a really tough debut on Thursday night against Villarreal but I felt he came through it very well.

“In an ideal situation, they would all be on four or five-year deals already here at Rangers. Unfortunately it does not always work like that in football.

“With regards to Ejaria and Kent, hopefully I am still in Jurgen Klopp’s good books for the foreseeable future and Liverpool can keep on winning games.

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“Maybe there will be some scope to do something there because we all certainly rate these two players very highly. If you are asking me if I would want to keep all four of these players for next year, I’d sign them all right now.”

Worrall moved north of the border after it emerged he was down the pecking order at Forest following a summer’s recruitment drive by Reds boss Aitor Karanka.

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