Rangers target hands in transfer request after bid rejected

It's been two days now since the Daily Record claimed on Saturday that Mark Warburton was hoping to make Brentford's Toumani Diagouraga a Rangers player by the end of the day. The player has now reportedly handed in a transfer request.

We still don't seem to have any real indication that Rangers have made a concrete bid higher than £100k, which is a pretty drastic lowball offer. The Record previously claimed £500k would be enough to see the deal, although there are now suggestions this morning that Brentford want £1m.

We'd have been surprised if, as good as he sounds, the club were going to drop half a million on a guy that'll be 29 at the start of next season. The idea of us going closer to a million seems even dafter. Warburton was yesterday slightly cryptic about it, mentioning other targets, so we'll have to see if the club moves on to someone else.

There was of course the possibility of completing moves for the Accrington Stanley pair, including defensive midfielder Matt Crooks, although that now looks unlikely too. We won't need a defensive midfielder to win the league, but if the Scottish Cup draw this evening turns up a trip to a top-flight side, someone like Diagouraga would be a huge boost. Here's hoping we can sort something out.