Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha is looking to strengthen his squad this summer in an attempt to close the gap with fierce rivals Celtic and they could do a lot worse than James McArthur.
The Glasgow-born 29-year-old is currently playing in the Premier League and has featured in 31 matches in all competitions for the south east London club in the last campaign.
However, given the departure of successful manager Sam Allardyce last week a number of players at Crystal Palace could be starting to think about their futures.
One of those could be McArthur, who is nearing the final stages of his successful career and here, This is Futbol has analysed three reasons why Rangers should show ambition and bring him home this summer:
Severe lack of midfield options
The centre of the park already looked weak for Rangers without the loss of loanees Emerson Hyndman and Jon Toral this summer. Both Josh Windass and Andy Halliday have come in for much criticism this season from the club’s supporters and it clear that fans want to see some improvement on the duo. Meanwhile, Jason Holt has improved since the appointment of Portuguese manager Caixinha in March. However, if the club want to progress next season then it is thought they will need someone better in the middle than him. This is where McArthur comes in and having played 172 times in the Premier League he would certainly add some class to the Rangers midfield.
Final year of his contract
McArthur has just 12 months left on his current contract at Crystal Palace and while his future may have been thrown into doubt after Allardyce’s departure his contract status will also be casting questions. Palace also added Luka Milivojevic to their midfield ranks in January and he has so far proved a success and helped the club retain their Premier League status. Now, the south east London side could look for a further new midfielder this summer as they aim to progress from their 14th placed finish. Now, with McArthur nearing the final years of his career he could be replaced by a younger option in the team, but this could also be to Rangers’ gain with his transfer value not expected to be too high given his contract status.
Experience
Ex-manager Mark Warburton took the approach of adding experienced players to his squad last summer. However, those included the volatile Joey Barton, injury prone Niko Kranjcar and the much past it Philippe Senderos with Clint Hill proving to be the only success of those signings. However, unlike the aforementioned trio McArthur boasts experience and still has a number of years on his side. As previously mentioned McArthur has played 172 times in the Premier League, 72 times in the Premiership and has also been capped 27 times by Scotland for the senior team. The signing of McArthur would certainly bring the feel good factor back to the club among the Ibrox fan base and he could certainly teach the club’s upcoming players a number of things.