FORMER Rangers star Andy Little believes his old club will be acquiring a player in the same mould as Stevie Naismith if they can clinch a deal for Preston striker Joe Garner.
North End manager Simon Grayson confirmed at the weekend that the Light Blues have made an inquiry for the 28-year-old who has a scoring rate of one in three for Preston.
Grayson says the Deepdale club are not compelled to sell, but Mark Warburton wants another frontman – especially as Martyn Waghorn is side-lined right now with a hamstring strain – and has confirmed that Garner is on his radar.
Little played beside Garner at Preston and is in no doubt that he would be a great acquisition, playing as a central striker or supporting the way Naismith used to do at Ibrox.
The 27-year-old Northern Ireland attacker said: “I had heard rumours that Rangers were interested in Garner and I’m not surprised.
“There was some chat in the summer that they were looking at him and I can totally understand.
“Garner is a great player and he would do very well in Scotland.
“He is a bit of a Stevie Naismith type. There is not much to him but he gets stuck in and he battles for everything and he’s got a bit of magic in him as well.
“He has scored a lot of goals since moving to Preston and I’m sure he would do the same in the Premiership in Scotland.”
Garner came out of the Blackburn Rovers academy in 2006 and had spells with Carlisle and Nottingham Forest and Watford before making the move to Preston in November 2012, helping them to promotion from League One to the Championship in 2015.
Grayson, whose side lost their league opener 2-1 to Fulham on Saturday, confirmed that Warburton is in the market but warned that Preston might not sell the player who is rated at £1million.
He said: "Rangers are sniffing around, they are wanting to try and take Joe Garner.
"We have had an enquiry but we are not looking to sell Joe. If anyone comes in with an offer, we will contemplate it and do the right thing for this football club.
"But as a football club we don’t want to sell anyone.
"Every player has got a price I suppose – they do at every club in the world – and we have to do what is right as a club."
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