OPINION
It has been a good year for Rangers transfers.
The club have bought well and, crucially, sold well, too, unlike under previous regimes when deals kept coming back to bite them.
Even the headline exit of Josh Windass, which netted a £2million fee, has proved to be decent business despite concerns at the time they were needlessly offloading a regular goalscorer and creator.
Yet, Rangers are refusing to rest on their laurels as they step up plans to continue their mass 2018 overhaul ahead of the January window.
Football Insider claim the Glasgow giants are plotting a move to sign Livingston defender Craig Halkett before the end of the year as they look to beat English Championship clubs to his signature.
It is said the 23-year-old is out of contract next summer and that could force the SPL club to agree a sale ahead of the winter window, the opening of which would give him the chance to sign a pre-contract with one of his interested suitors and quit on a free at the end of the season.
Rangers have been one step ahead of their rivals on a number of occasions since Mark Allen took over as the director of football.
They sealed pre-window summer deals for Scott Arfield and Allan McGregor, both of whom were snapped up on free transfers, and all the signs suggest they want a similar arrangement with Halkett.
He is a player who was in the youth-team ranks at Rangers but never made a senior appearance and left on a free in the summer of 2016.
Halkett has developed significantly at Livi, first in the Scottish Championship and now in the Scottish Premiership, making the climb up in standard look a simple one.
Rangers currently have the best centre-back options they’ve had in the last half-decadee, but Joe Worrall is on a season-long loan from Nottingham Forest and is due to return to his parent club while Gareth McAuley is out of contract at the end of the campaign.
Rangers will need a third quality option to go alongside Connor Goldson and Nikola Katic, and Halkett has the potential to be that man.
If the club are confident he wants an Ibrox return, and the sums add up, this deal could be wrapped up before the year is out.