Todd Cantwell wants to leave Rangers and ‘look for another adventure’

Rangers manager Philippe Clement revealed Todd Cantwell has asked for a transfer after the midfielder was again absent during a 2-1 friendly defeat by Birmingham City.

The Light Blues lost at St Andrew’s in a tribute match for Trevor Francis and Clement volunteered the information about former Norwich midfielder Cantwell during a Rangers TV interview.

James Tavernier scored an own goal as Rangers conceded twice in the first half before Scott Wright pulled one back in front of about 7,000 travelling fans.

Clement said he was “totally not happy with the first half” and added: “Of course it’s a pre-season game so we have players like Danilo who has had seven months out. We cannot expect wonders of him for the moment. He misses a bit of the speed and power he had before and we have to build him up.

“Also, we need to find solutions in the number 10 position. Alex Lowry played there but he has to make steps to get in the first-team squad and to be more aggressive.”

Clement then returned to the media room shortly after the end of his post-match conference to clarify why Cantwell did not feature at St Andrew’s.

“A while ago Todd came to my office to say he wanted to look for another adventure and make another step.

“We had a long talk because we have a good relationship and I told him to think really well about that because Rangers is a fantastic club and that I would give him time.

“But he has come back to say that is what he wants, so I have to focus on the players who are here in the building with their minds on the (Champions League) qualifying games and league games. So we need to find solutions.”

Clement, who also left out the likes of Connor Goldson, added: “If you see how many young players who are playing for the first time at this level, we had 13 players from the academy, it will only make them hungrier.

“We kept a lot of players in Glasgow to train hard because they need that.”