Rangers transfer news: Is the O'Halloran deal off, and should we be worried?

Rangers' transfer pursuit of Michael O'Halloran hasn't been yielding any positive news since we were told that it would be going through two days ago, and now it looks like it might not be going through at all.

The clubs seem nowhere closer to a mutual valuation of the player, and the St Johnstone boss, Tommy Wright, has said that there's been no update and the player is now back in the squad.

It's hard to read this - it could well be a negotiating ploy, and it's certainly not completely over. But it does look like the club are going to refuse to pay £500k and are happy to give up if that's how much it's going to cost. Mark Warburton's comments about moving on if a player was too expensive would seem to suggest that (although they don't confirm it - what a manager says in public and thinks in private frequently have only a faint passing acquaintance with each other.) Basically - both teams are playing hardball.

Rangers Transfer News hub - keep up to date with all the latest news in the January window

Should we be slightly worried though? Some journalists, in particular Keith Jackson of the Daily Record, has continually said that O'Halloran, along with Toumani Diagouraga, were players Warburton laid out as his key targets and would be disappointed if he didn't get them. Shouldn't the board just be getting it done rather than haggling over £100k? Don't we have the money?

We haven't really seen any "get them signed Dave King!" responses from our fellow Bears if a quick flick through Twitter is anything to go by, but just in case some of you were starting to think that way, or if Jim Spence has stopped by: there's a reason the club hasn't been totally clear about how much money it's going to spend in the transfer market. Simply, if King deposited his money openly in one go, the club might find a few extra 0's added on to every transfer negotiation. It's basic stuff, and something that Rangers in particular should be acutely aware of due to three little words - Tore Andre Flo. If the price were £5m and the club were haggling over a million, that'd seem fine - it's just relative stuff. This is the level we're at for the minute - thankfully, we have a manager who's getting good enough players for the money.