Three English clubs 'interested' in ex-Rangers star Lawrence
The former Rangers midfielder left Ibrox after three years, having struggled to become a key player due to injuries.
The 31-year-old Welshman is now a free agent and looks set to return to the English second tier, where he has previously impressed.
Lawrence was a regular for Derby County over five seasons before joining Rangers.
The Daily Post suggests that Wrexham, Lawrence's hometown club, are keen to offer him a deal after their promotion from League One.
The ambitious Welsh side, backed by Hollywood owners, appear eager to strengthen their squad for a fourth consecutive promotion push.
They recently signed former Rangers and Livingston striker Ryan Hardie.
At the same time, West Brom and Coventry are also considering a bid for the versatile midfielder.
Lawrence has also previously had loan spells in the Championship with Yeovil Town, Rotherham, Blackburn, Cardiff, and Ipswich.
The latter have already been linked with a potential swoop for their former loanee.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Record
41 minutes ago
- Daily Record
Mark Warburton makes astonishing Rangers claims over 55 banner, Petrofac Cup and 'shoddy' exit
The former Rangers boss has looked back at his time at Ibrox in the second part of our exclusive interview Mark Warburton sat down in the hours after his crowning moment as Rangers manager and treated himself to a celebratory glass of wine. But as he sank that first sip, the Englishman soon found himself gulping down the realisation that things would never again be the same for him in Glasgow. The Ibrox gaffer had just masterminded a stunning Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Celtic. By leading the Ibrox Championship squad to a spot-kick triumph over Ronny Deila's Premiership champions at Hampden, he had earned instant adulation from an Ibrox fanbase starved of success. The Light Blue legions were already impressed enough with the job he was doing. Hired in the summer of 2015 to complete the primary task of leading the club back to the Premiership after Stuart McCall's promotion push had faltered the season before, he ticked that challenge off with little fuss with a new-look squad that enthralled the fans with their brand of entertaining, fluid football. But by beating Celtic, however, it quickly dawned on Warburton that he had inadvertently pushed the bar of expectation far higher than the budget he was working with could reach. All of a sudden, simply rejoining their bitter rivals in the top division following a bleak four-year trudge through the lower leagues was no longer enough for the fans and the over-eager Ibrox board. Warburton realised then that the impatient Rangers support would demand to see a team that he knew was nowhere near ready to take on Celtic for honours. As things turned out, he had every right to be worried by that misplaced confidence. The scenes of wild Rangers joy in the directors box served only to convince Dermot Desmond to push the boat out at Parkhead. In came a Titanic name in Brendan Rodgers and a raft of huge signings that would propel a Celtic squad already miles and millions in front of Gers onto another dimension entirely. In the second part of Warburton's exclusive sit-down with Record Sport to mark the 10th anniversary of his Rangers appointment, he looked back and said: 'I remember getting home that night, sitting down for a glass of wine and thinking, 'Oh God!' 'It wasn't in a negative way but it was me realising that our budget was still a fraction of Celtic's. 'Guys like Dom Ball, I kid you not, were probably on one-tenth of what some Celtic players were earning. 'Our entire midfield in that semi-final was on less than one of their midfield players. So my point was, not negatively, but this result is just a building block. 'We knew that nine times out of 10, Celtic would have won that game. 'Then you consider that the next season when we returned to the Premiership, Celtic had added again. They had some real quality on the pitch, bringing in guys like Moussa Dembele. Again, his wage was multiples of most of my squad.' It didn't take long for the new expectation levels to be spelled out for Warburton - in 40ft high letters across the Govan Stand. 'We played Hamilton in the first league game at Ibrox. I remember getting there at 8.55am. 'I used to love getting in early, to get a cuppa and write down some notes before the crowd comes in. 'So I walk down the tunnel. The pitch was being watered, the sun was shining. I'm thinking it was all magnificent. 'Then I look up and see this huge display – Going for 55. 'I immediately thought, who the f*** has done that? 'They were lighting the blue-touch paper for the Ibrox fans when I wanted to calm things down. 'That's not me lacking optimism or desire. No. I just realised that Celtic still probably had five times our budget. I would say conservatively five times more. 'In any other league with that scenario, you've got no chance. 'What really peed me off was that people would say to me, 'Oh you don't know what's expected at Rangers. You don't understand the club. You don't know we have to win every game.' 'Of course I did! Why would I not know that? "They spoke about it as if I was totally ignorant, which I found really, really frustrating. 'I knew the expectation, and I knew what was involved. I think we delivered on that in the first season.' While Rodgers tooled up for Rangers' return by signing Dembele - one of the hottest young talents in Europe at the time - and former Manchester City ace Scott Sinclair, Warburton had to wheel and deal. Clint Hill, 37, and 31-year-old Niko Kranjcar arrived on frees but the veteran former Premier League stars' legs had long slowed past the point where they could match the blistering pace being set by Rodgers' red-hot Celts. Then of course there was a certain Joey Barton. He arrived and immediately aimed a sneering, dismissive dig at the man he was expected to square up to. 'He ain't in my league - he is nowhere the level I am as a player,' spat the controversial Scouser in reference to Celtic skipper Scott Brown. Of course those words were forced straight back down his throat on a mortifying afternoon at Celtic Park. 'It just didn't work out,' said Warburton as he looked back on the Barton signing - an ill-judged experiment that soon blew up with a training ground bust-up in the wake of that 5-1 derby demolition job. 'I'm not going to sit here and criticise Joey. That's not my intention at all. 'But very quickly, you see a couple of social media posts and stuff. You realise Joey is Joey. 'So it didn't work out. An incident happened that was not right — unacceptable. 'The trouble was that Joey had been a big signing, had a big profile. But legally we weren't allowed to say anything about what had happened, so of course, the press had a field day. 'All you read was 'no comment from Warburton, nothing from Rangers' - but we weren't legally allowed to comment. So that was a frustration 'But equally were all the headlines about us being so many points behind Celtic. What did they expect? 'I'm looking at the squad we had. Jason Holt, Andy Halliday, guys I can't speak highly enough about. Dom Ball too. But these were players on minimal wages compared to the sums being spent by Celtic. 'And of course we then have that game at Parkhead. We have Rob Kiernan and Philippe Senderos sent off, are down to nine men with a back three of Barton, Lee Wallace and James Tavernier. 'I remember being told after that game that I should have just shut up shop and taken a 3-1 defeat. 'However, if you remember just after half-time when the score was only 2-1, Barrie McKay fires a huge chance an inch wide of the post. I'm going at that moment, 'We're in this…' 'Celtic scored again but I just felt if we could get another one, the crowd would get nervous again, so what's the point in me shutting up shop and accepting a 3-1 defeat? 'I couldn't do that. 'But even talking to Walter Smith afterwards, he said 'Maybe take the 3-1 because the five really hurts you.' 'But listen, hindsight is a marvellous thing.' Looking back to that humiliating afternoon in September 2016, it was the beginning of the end for Warburton as faith in his management frayed. He limped on until February 2017 before bizarrely learning on TV that he had 'resigned' - despite not having spoken with Ibrox chiefs for over a week before his exit. That was an infuriating episode that seemed to sum up the chaotic world in which Rangers existed at the time. But not nearly as frustrating for Warburton as having the goalposts shifted on his employment objectives. 'My target, set by the board, was to get European football in year three,' he said. 'I said, if we can't get European football by then, we don't deserve to be in the job. 'But suddenly, Brendan comes in and Celtic have their best ever season in the club's history. An invincible season. 'We were still on track for second or third but at that point everything changed - but really all that had changed was the gap to Celtic. 'I thought there was enough credit in the bank from the year before. We'd won the Petrofac Cup, we'd won the league by double-figure points, we'd got to the Scottish Cup final. 'So I felt there was enough credit in the bank.' In the end, Warburton's credit line ran out just hours before he was due to oversee a Scottish Cup tie against Morton. Initially it was reported that he had chosen to step down - but that was news to the Londoner. Rangers insisted Warburton and his No2 Davie Weir had asked to quit 'without compensation' so they could move to Nottingham Forest. The pair did eventually take up a post at the City Ground, but a decade on Warburton continues to argue until he is blue in the face against the narrative laid out by then Ibrox chairman Dave King. 'To this day, it irks me, it frustrates the life out of me, it angers me,' he raged. 'We'd had a board meeting and I knew that the tone had changed and it was wrong, it was inappropriate. 'I referred back to the KPIs, European football next year, not this year, we were sitting second/third. So everything was OK. 'But the gap to Celtic was a dominant factor. 'All I remember was sitting on my sofa one Friday night and my phone started going nuts. At that point I see the yellow ticker tape on Sky Sports saying, 'Mark Warburton resigns from Rangers'. 'But honestly, who resigns from Rangers? You just don't do that. 'So I called Davie Weir and said, 'I think I've just been sacked'. 'Davie goes, 'So have I'. At that point I looked at the ticker tape and it said 'Weir also resigns'. 'I hadn't spoken to Stewart Robertson for around 10 days at that point. But suddenly I get a message saying check your email inbox. That was it. 'We'd never had any conversation. I still have no idea where the resignation thing came from. 'It was obvious the chairman wanted to make a change because of the gap to Celtic. 'It was handled so poorly. Everyone tells me about the integrity and respect of the club, which I absolutely believe in, but on that occasion it couldn't have been more shoddy.'
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
When are EFL fixtures released? Date, time and schedule ahead of 2025/26 season
The EFL season only ended less than a month ago but preparations are already underway for 2025/26, with clubs making signings, appointing managers and confirming pre-season schedules across all three leagues. And a vital step in each club's preparations comes with the release of the fixture calendar, as every team learns of opening day fixtures, dates for the diary and their opponents at vital points in the season. While the Premier League has already released the schedule for teams in the top flight, EFL clubs learn their own fixtures just over a week later, ahead of the respective seasons starting in the opening two weekends of August. And with the fixture release just around the corner, here is everything you need to know. When are EFL fixtures released? Fixtures for each of the leagues in the EFL will be released on Thursday, 26 June at 12pm BST, according to the EFL website. Every club in the Championship, League One and League Two will learn their full list of fixtures for the 2025/26 season on that date, with dates for the play-off finals already confirmed. When does the 2025/26 Championship season begin? The opening matches of the 2025/26 season in the second division will take place over the weekend of 8-10 August. The 46 rounds of league matches will take place across 33 weekends, nine midweeks and four bank holidays, with the final games of the regular season played over the weekend of 2 May. When does the 2025/26 season begin in League One and League Two? In the third and fourth division, the season will begin a week earlier than in the Championship, with the first fixtures taking place over the weekend of 1 to 3 August. Matches will be played over 33 weekends, five midweeks and eight bank holidays and international breaks. As in the Championship, the final matches of the regular season will take place over the weekend of 2 May. EFL Key dates Opening Weekends League One and League Two: Friday, 1 August – Sunday, 3 August Championship: Friday, 8 August – Sunday, 10 August Final games of the regular season Weekend of 2/3 May 2026 Carabao Cup Round One Draw: Thursday 26 June 2025 Round One: week commencing 11 August 2025 Vertu Trophy Group Stage Draw: Thursday, 26 June 2025 Matchday One: week commencing 1 September 2025 Final: Sunday, 12 April 2026 Play-offs Championship Play-Off Final: Saturday, 23 May 2026 League One Play-Off Final: Sunday, 24 May 2026
Rhyl Journal
an hour ago
- Rhyl Journal
Sheffield Wednesday facing further restrictions on player recruitment
The Owls were already under a transfer embargo and the EFL announced on Wednesday that the Championship club were now also subject to a three-window fee restriction, covering the current summer window, January 2026 and next summer's registration period. The club immediately indicated their intention to appeal against the fee restriction, but it will stay in place unless the appeal is upheld by an independent commission. EFL Statement: Sheffield Wednesday 📘 — EFL Communications (@EFL_Comms) June 18, 2025 The fee restriction prevents them from signing a player permanently or on loan where the transfer or loan involves a fee or any other form of consideration being paid or provided at some date in the future. The fee restriction was imposed after the club exceeded 30 days of late payments between July 1 last year and June 30 of this year, the EFL said. Earlier this month the club and their owner Dejphon Chansiri were charged by the EFL over non-payment of player wages in March and May of this year. Those proceedings are currently being considered by an independent commission. Those liabilities to their players led to a transfer embargo being imposed, under which Wednesday can only 'staff up' to a maximum of 23 professional players. The embargo would lift if and when the club pay those liabilities.
