Mark Warburton faces a fight to bring Niko Kranjcar to Rangers as New York Cosmos line up contract offer

via Evening Times |

MARK WARBURTON will have to persuade Niko Kranjcar to spurn the offer of a deal in New York if he is to make the Croatian star his latest signing this summer.

The Gers boss is keen to bring the former Portsmouth, Tottenham and QPR midfielder to Ibrox ahead of the new Premiership campaign.

But New York Cosmos chiefs are set to offer Kranjcar fresh terms to extend his stay Stateside and complete the remainder of the North American Soccer League campaign.

Having already clinched deals for Matt Crooks, Josh Windass and Jordan Rossiter, and put a deal on the table for midfielder Joey Barton, Warburton will hope to keep up the momentum in the transfer market in the coming weeks.

The 53-year-old has already held discussions with Kranjcar as he looks to tempt him back across the Atlantic for a shot at the Premiership title and potential Europa League campaign.

But Cosmos chief operating officer Erik Stover hopes the playmaker will snub a switch to Ibrox to remain at the James M. Shuart Stadium

Stover told SportTimes: “We certainly hope to agree a new contract with Niko. He has been a great player for us on and off the field.

“We are putting a proposal together for him now and we are hopeful that he will stay here with us. His contract expires at the end of our spring season so we have some work to do.

“We remain optimistic. It has been a good partnership so far, he has been a great player for us and I think he has enjoyed his time here.

“I think there is a willingness on both sides but it is a contract negotiation so it won’t be done until it’s done.

“I had heard some rumblings over the weekend on social media but there hasn’t been any contact between the clubs.

“I wouldn’t have expected Rangers to have contacted us. The player is out of contract in a few weeks so I wasn’t expecting a club to call.

“I wouldn’t put a timeframe on it but we do need to act soon because the contract does expire in the next few weeks.”

The arrival of Kranjcar would be another significant coup for Warburton as he looks to bolster his Ibrox ranks and add strength and depth ahead of the new campaign.

Scotland legend Joe Jordan, who worked with Kranjcar three times in England, told SportTimes on Tuesday that the 31-year-old could be a key player for the Light Blues if a deal can be done to bring him to Glasgow.

And Cosmos chief Stover believes Kranjcar still has plenty to offer despite dropping down to the second tier of the American game following his departure from Dyanmo Kyiv in February.

He said: “Niko is still a relatively young guy, only 31. He hadn’t played for a long time because of contract issues with his previous club.

“Through mutual friends he was able to come to us, we saw it as a great opportunity to get a great player into our club, but also to help him get back his fitness because he hadn’t played in a while.

“It has worked out for both of us. There is a hope that he will stick around longer than our spring season, but we have got to get that done.

“You are always aware of players attracting interest but we have an organisational philosophy that we are family orientated. Niko came to us through someone close to our organisation.

“There was a lot of mutual trust and respect from the very beginning. We knew he had a lot of work to do to get back to his full fitness.

“I don’t think he is there yet but he is getting there and he looks great. That is all we could have hoped for.

“We have treated him well, he has treated us well and hopefully we can get a deal done to keep him.”