Rangers could pick up £6m winger for peanuts as chairman breaks silence on star player
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Rangers will avoid paying over £6m for Peterborough United winger Kwame Poku if they can take advantage of a transfer loophole at the end of the winger's contract.
Rangers News exclusively revealed that visiting Ibrox scouts watched Poku fire in a stunning hat-trick in Peterborough's 6-1 rout of rivals Cambridge United.
Since then, links have emerged to the Premier League and English Championship with Southampton, Ipswich Town, Millwall and Burnley all mentioned as suitors.
Rangers will however hope to take advantage of cross-border compensation rules which would see Poku move to Scotland for a cut-price fee.
With Peterborough having also offered Kwame Poku a new contract, outspoken chairman Darragh MacAnthony is increasingly consigned to losing the winger at the end of his current deal in the summer.
But if anyone south of the border swoops in, the Irishman reckons they can expect to pay north of £6m.
Posh expect 'millions and millions' for Kwame Poku
Left-footed right-winger Kwame Poku is turning heads with his return of ten goals and seven assists for Peterborough already this season.
Rangers will hope to strike a cut-price cross-border transfer for Poku which would see the Gers pay a nominal development fee.
But should teams south of the border pounce on the 23-year-old, then they will be expected to negotiate a development fee with Peterborough who have proven notoriously stubborn in the past.
Now, Darragh MacAnthony – who has been involved in a number of public discussions surrounding Peterborough's seemingly endless conveyor belt of young talents – has been speaking about the situation.
Failing to acknowledge the potential of a team outside of England pouncing, a cocky MacAnthony reckons Peterborough will get 'millions and millions' for Poku at tribunal should the winger stay south of the border
"(Tribunals will) look at a lot of things," said MacAnthony said on his latest Hard Truth podcast.
"They'll look at how long he's been with you? He'll have been with us four years, he'll have played probably 200 games, we'd have paid nearly £500k in add-ons already.
"They'll look at the offers we've had. So we'll be able to straight away go into the tribunal and show them offers from six months ago that were of the value of three-and-three, £3m up front and £3m in add-ons (£6m in total).
"We will expect minimum that plus, plus, plus and plus.
"A fair tribunal will look and go 'yeah, you've spent £500k, you've developed him' and the club that is trying to sign him they'll look at it and go 'that's a big club with money, you're going to have to pay whatever'.
"So that's how they would value that.
"(The fact we've made him a big offer) plays into it to. We'd expect the tribunal to be very fair to not discourage clubs from being in that situation when you get richer clubs coming in and to make them pay a fair price."
Kwame Poku has £30m+ Premier League potential
Darragh MacAnthony also reckons that whoever signs Kwame Poku is getting a potential £30m+ player who is destined for the Premier League.
MacAnthony has hinted at Poku's plans to leave Peterborough with a general acceptance it's time for the attacker to move on to a 'higher level'.
That's despite the Posh offering Poku a 'club record' contract after Peterborough rejected those £6m bids for the winger in the summer.
Speaking about Poku's potential, MacAnthony reckons the Rangers-linked frontman is as good as anyone who has come through at Peterborough in recent seasons.
This include the likes of Brentford striker Ivan Toney, Southampton defender Ronnie Edwards and Ipswich Town winger Sammie Szmodics.
"A fair price for someone like Kwame is in the millions and millions and millions," said MacAnthony.
"He's going to be one of those players who probably in three years time will go for £30m+, if I was a guessing man.
"He'll be one of them who'll go Championship, Premier League, and then he'll go bang again.
"Because he's got physicality, he's got pace, he's got technique that's top drawer, he's got an appetite, he's ever-present, all those things.
"He will kill it in the Premier League.
"Kwame is probably one of the best (to come out of Peterborough) in recent seasons."
Rangers will hope the lure of a title battle, European football and the expectations of Ibrox attracts the winger towards Scotland.
