Rangers have entered the battle to sign Peterborough forward Siriki Dembele. The EFL League One side’s director of football Barry Fry has confirmed the Light Blues have watched the 24-year-old on two separate occasions:

“Rangers have watched Siriki twice as have the Scottish national side. Newcastle manager Steve Bruce watched him at Crewe when he didn’t play well. There will always be interest in players like Siriki, but we don’t have to sell him. We have him for another 18 months and we’d rather he stayed until the summer when we can reassess his situation.”

Celtic have also been keeping tabs on Dembele, with the Hoops already having his younger brother Karamoko on their books, while Peterborough’s chairman Darragh MacAnthony has recently confirmed that a number of Championship teams are interested in the player.

Reports suggest that QPR, Brentford and Nottingham Forest are all monitoring the striker, in addition to the Gers, Celtic and Newcastle.

Dembele may be on manager Steven Gerrard’s shortlist if Alfredo Morelos does finally leave Ibrox in January or at the end of the season. The Peterborough star has, though, only scored five goals in 19 appearances this campaign so more scouting may be needed to decide whether he has the ability to make it in the Scottish Premiership.