Cumbrian rivals Carlisle United and Barrow appear to have missed out on January transfer window target Josh McPake of Glasgow Rangers.
They were among a host of League Two clubs pursuing the 20-year-old winger who has spent the first half of the season on loan at Morecambe.
But Football Insider is reporting that McPake is due to travel to Merseyside for a medical ahead of another loan move to Tranmere.
They say that Tranmere chairman Mark Palios, a former player, has given the green light for Rovers to complete the deal.
It appears that McPake has struggled to make an impact with Stephen Robinson’s side and Rangers are switching him to Tranmere for the second-half of the campaign.
Over the last week or so Hartlepool United, Oldham Athletic, Salford City, Bradford City and the two Cumbrian clubs have been mentioned by various outlets as clubs competing for his services.
McPake has played once for Rangers’ first-team, having been nursed through their age group system and he has also spent time on loan at Dundee, Greenock Morton and Harrogate Town.
Carlisle boss Keith Millen has not confirmed or denied any individuals linked to the Brunton Park club but admits “we’ve been looking at how we can strengthen the squad in January ever since I got to the club.”
He told the club’s website: “I would say we still have a lot of spinning plates at the moment. Not many people are really wanting to commit to any agreements, and I think you’ll also find that some of the bigger teams will keep hold of some of their players because of Covid and the fact they’re losing players to that.
“Certainly the Premier League clubs will be looking to hold some back just to protect themselves, so that will be a harder market for us at the moment, I would think.
“I prefer to sign players on permanent deals anyway, because they’re coming into the club to be part of it.
“It’s not ideal to have too many loans as they know they’re going to be going back to their clubs.
“To try and get that balance of permanent signings, it’s normal that the January market is an expensive one when it comes to permanents. That’s the downside of it.
“I think the nearer we get to January the tougher it’s going to be, because of the Covid factor and clubs wanting to keep hold of players, as we said earlier. I think that will come into the equation.
“It might be the case that more deals are done closer to the end of January, hopefully when everything settles down a bit and clubs decide, go on, you can go and play now.
“There’s a lot of considerations we have to look at with players now. We’re speaking to a lot, trying to keep our options open. I’d love to get a couple in first week of January, we’re still trying to do that.
“Whether that happens or not we’ll have to wait and see. If it doesn’t we’ve got to carry on with what we’re doing.
“Your contacts are always important, of course they are, and you do try to call in a few favours from people you know around the game.
“But you’re not just dealing with the clubs and the managers these days, there are the agents as well, and they quite often have the biggest influence on where their player is going to go.
“We have to stay in contact with the agents probably more than we do with the clubs. David [Holdsworth] is working really hard behind the scenes, talking to a lot of people, and we’ve identified what we need and we have our targets.
“It’s important that we have more than one option so that you can follow up on two or three other options if your first target doesn’t come off.”
