Giovanni van Bronckhorst revealed Rangers are “very close” to signing Antonio Colak from PAOK as they get ready to lose Joe Aribo to Southampton.

The Light Blues are ready to bring the 28-year-old Croatia international, who scored a double at Ibrox last August to knock Rangers out of the Champions League qualifiers as loan club Malmo won 4-2 on aggregate, to Glasgow for a reported fee of £1.8million.

Midfielder Aribo is expected to join Premier League outfit Saints for a fee widely reported to be up to £10m with a sell-on clause.

Van Bronckhorst told Sky Sports about the interest in Colak, saying: “We are very close with him. We worked hard to get him on board, so hopefully he will join us really soon and give us some extra options up front.

“I think he has shown in the teams he played for that he can score goals, he is a very good striker.

“He did us a lot of damage at the beginning of last season which also showed his quality.

“Of course it is a new season ahead and we want to be successful in all the competitions we play in, so we have to have the squad to be able to do that.

“So we are more than happy that he will join us really soon.”

On Aribo’s future, the Dutchman admitted that the former Charlton player, who scored Rangers’ goal in the Europa League final defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in Seville and who would be entering the last year of his contract, wants to play in England’s top flight.

He said: “Joe is a very important player for us.

“He has been really good for this club for the last years.

“His development was really good and at the moment he has ambitions to play in the Premier League, so that is his mission and it is probably what is going to happen in the near future.

“But it is what you want as a club, to get talented players into the club and develop them into really good players and eventually the player has their own ambitions.

“But what he has done for this club has been fantastic.”

Van Bronckhorst also revealed contract talks are ongoing with players such as Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent, who will also enter the final 12 months of their current deals.

He said: “We are in talks with the players who will go into the last years of their contract.

“Of course, after a season you had last year, attention will come to your players, but so far the interest we have in our players is not very high, apart from Joe.

“But in football, you never know, anything can change at any moment.

“We are working hard with Ross Wilson (sporting director) to make sure we are ready and we are getting in the players who we want in, in the coming weeks, to make sure the squad is ready for next season.”