By Kevin Phillips

23rd May, 2022 | 9:07am

Rangers told to 'brace themselves' for Premier League offers - pundit

Kevin Phillips has claimed Rangers will have to “brace themselves” for offers from the Premier League for their top stars this summer.

The former Sunderland striker, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, insisted the Gers’ talent will want to play in the Premier League.

Rangers sealed the Scottish Cup on Saturday (21 May) with an extra-time win over Hearts – but failed to secure qualification for next season’s Champions League group stage after losing in Wednesday’s (18 May) Europa League final.

Joe Aribo, Calvin Bassey, and Alfredo Morelos are among the Ibrox stars most frequently linked with a move away.

Rangers raked in a reported £16million club-record fee for academy product Nathan Patterson following his move to Everton during the January window.

Phillips insisted Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side will always be forced to consider bids of over £10million.

“Unfortunately, players will always be cherry-picked if they do well at Rangers and Celtic,” he told Football Insider‘s Ewan Kingsbury.

“The stats don’t lie – there have been a lot of imports from Scotland in recent years.

“Players want to play in the Premier League, even if Rangers and Celtic are in Europe. It’s the best league in the world.

“They’ll have to brace themselves. Rangers will find it so hard to turn down an offer if it gets to the £10million mark because that’s just how their club works.

“It’ll be a shame if they are to lose some of their top talent, but that’s just how football works.”

Rangers will enter next season’s Champions League at the third qualifying round.

Van Bronckhorst’s side finished four points adrift of eventual league winners Celtic.

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