The Ryan Kent Rangers contract question and Michael Beale's 22-word answer

Rangers appear no closer to extending Ryan Kent’s contract beyond the summer following a straight to the point update by manager Michael Beale.

There are currently seven first-team stars who will see their deals expire at the end of the season. In addition to Kent, there is Allan McGregor, Filip Helander, Ryan Jack, Scott Arfield, Steven Davis and Alfredo Morelos. Ahead of the Scottish Cup fifth round win over Partick Thistle at Ibrox on Sunday, Beale revealed talks over contracts were not an initial priority when he took over from Giovanni van Bronckhorst, winning was.

“There are players out of contract here and a lot of things are up in the air,” he said. “To give you an insight, this team was hurting when I came in. A lot of people were frustrated inside at the way things had gone. We had to go through a mending process, where we had to get consistent results quickly, then we’d deal with everything else later on. Genuinely, no-one has knocked on my door and wanted an ultimatum or a timescale.”

Beale was asked to provide an update on Kent’s contract situation by a Rangers fan who had stumbled into the post-match press conference. “There is no news on that at the moment,” he said. “No news whatsoever at the moment. When there is, we will update everybody.”

Kent was brought on for the second half of the 3-2 win over Thistle with the team trailing at the interval to Championship opposition as Beale admitted he “had to go a bit more direct and be more urgent”.