According to Sky Sports, Rangers have made a £3m bid to sign big Millwall centre-back Jake Cooper, and their Scottish Premiership rivals Celtic must hijack the deal.

What's the word, then?

Steven Gerrard is unveiled as Rangers manager

Well, Sky Sports says that Gers boss Steven Gerrard has launched an offer to bring the defender to Ibrox, as the former Liverpool and England midfielder looks to add to the nine summer additions he has already made for the Glasgow outfit.

However, Sky Sports report that Millwall don’t want to sell the 23-year-old, and it will likely take a much bigger offer to prise him away from the south London club.

Cooper, who has two years remaining on his contract with the Championship side, impressed during the 2017/18 campaign with his team having the joint-third best defence in the league, making 42 appearances.

[ad_pod ]

Why should Celtic hijack the deal?

Well, while Brendan Rodgers does have options at the heart of his defence right now – as shown when he lined up with a back three of Jack Hendry, Jozo Simunovic and Kristoffer Ajer in their Champions League qualifying tie against Alashkert on Tuesday, he perhaps should be looking for more quality there.

If the Bhoys want to ensure they win the Scottish Premiership title again and compete in the Champions League then they perhaps need to find better performers than Simunovic and Hendry, who came under fire from his own fans on Twitter following his latest European display, and Cooper would fit the bill.

As well as being strong defensively and particularly effective in the air, he has also shown what a threat he can be in the opposition penalty area too with 14 goals in his 135 games for Millwall.

[brid autoplay="true" video="256213" player="12034" title="Watch Celtic's first six fixtures for the 201819 Scottish Premiership season"]