Rangers boss Russell Martin confirmed interest in Brentford left-back Jayden Meghoma as Jefte appears to be on his way out of Ibrox.
The 19-year-old England youth international worked under Martin at Southampton before he joined the Bees in 2024, with a subsequent loan spell at Preston.
Brazilian left-back Jefte, who joined Rangers from Fluminense last summer, is reportedly set to join Palmeiras for £6million.
The Gers boss was speaking after the 4-2 win over Alloa booked a place in the quarter-final of the Premier Sports Cup where they will host the winners of Sunday’s Livingston versus Hibernian tie, albeit first they have the opening leg of the Champions League play-off against Club Brugge at Ibrox on Tuesday.
Martin said: “Jefte was in yesterday, and then by yesterday evening, he’s maybe not going to be here moving forward because it’s a good deal for him and the club.
“So we’ll see what happens over the next couple of days with that.
“And so we have to be ready to replace him, and we always have been ready.
“So Jayden is a player we know from Southampton, spent a year with us as a young boy, training every day, understands the work, top talent, plays for England at all the youth levels.
“Brentford signed him for a lot of money for a teenager, and he went on loan last year in the Championship and did really well.
“So he’s a player we know and like, and hopefully at some point he’ll be a Rangers player and you’ll know that when he is.”
Martin made 10 changes from the side which started in the second leg of the Champions League qualifier against Viktoria Plzen in midweek and the match ended with Emmanuel Fernandez, Mikey Moore and Thelo Aasgaard all having made their debuts, while fit-again Hamza Igamane got more minutes.
Nedim Bajrami, Fernandez, James Tavernier (penalty) and Findlay Curtis scored for the home side with Joe Rothwell’s own goal and a Scott Taggart tap-in counting for the League One outfit.
Martin said: “I saw some really good bits and some stuff that I didn’t like, but I don’t think I expected anything different with guys that just haven’t played very much.
“When you make 10 changes to the team it’s going to disrupt something. So my feeling is we get through, we score four goals, we should score more goals for sure.
“In the first half, after the first 15 minutes, when you can’t quite sustain the same level of intensity, they caused some problems which shouldn’t happen.
“And I mean that really respectfully, because the way they approached the game, they were great. But there was a lack of a bit of energy, because we had so much of the ball.
“A lack of energy without it could have been really costly. So we have a couple of moments we shouldn’t have, but I’m pleased with a lot.”
Alloa player-manager Andy Graham was pleased with his side’s performance.
He said: “My overriding emotion is pride. We dug in at times but we also played and passed the ball under pressure. They should real composure.
“I’m really pleased from that perspective. You’re always going to think ‘what if’ when you get it to 3-2 with a couple of minutes to go.
“But I’m not sitting here saying we deserved to win the game.”
