Rangers managed to reach the semi-finals of the Europa League last night by beating Braga 3-1 at Ibrox.

An extra-time goal from striker Kemar Roofe eventually gave the home crowd what they wanted to see, with Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side now set to take on RB Leipzig later this month for a place in the final.

While the Gers will be singing the praises of their Jamaican striker for the time being thanks to his heroics in midweek, it seems as though the club may have identified a player they could sign in the summer that may be an upgrade on Roofe.

According to a recent report from The Northern Echo, Rangers are one of the clubs interested in signing striker Ross Stewart from the Wearside club this summer.

Prior to joining the League One club back in the 2021 January transfer window, the striker had spent the rest of his career in Scotland such as Ross County, St. Mirren and Alloa Athletic.

With 199 club appearances under his belt prior to Sunderland's match against Shrewsbury Town, the 25-year-old has racked up 90 goal contributions in total by scoring 70 goals and providing 20 assists.

Praised for his "exceptional" work rate on the pitch by James McFadden, Stewart has scored 22 goals in 41 League One appearances this season, showing how deadly he is in front of goal.

To further highlight how impressive the Scotsman has been for the Wearside club in this campaign, he has racked up a higher average of shots per game than any other Sunderland player as well as the fourth-highest average of 1.4 key passes per game.

In fact, the striker has the joint-third highest number of shots on target (53) in the entire league, showing how much of a deadly attacking threat he is.

In comparison to Roofe, despite scoring 10 league goals in 21 appearances this season, his statistics in terms of shots and key passes per game in the SPFL are lower than the Sunderland star.

Taking this into account and the fact that the former County figure is younger than Roofe (29), he could well be an upgrade on the current Rangers attacker heading into next season and beyond.

With that in mind, if the Gers can convince Stewart to make a return to Scotland with the lure of chasing titles and playing in Europe, this could be a great bit of business from the club.

In other news: From £4.5m to £25m: Wilson had huge Rangers howler over “remarkable” 12-goal gem…