Stiliyan Petrov says that young Aston Villa forward Rushian Hepburn-Murphy would be a great signing for Rangers should he make the move to Ibrox.

Rangers have been linked with the 18-year-old after talks on a bumper new three-year deal at Villa Park stalled earlier this week.

That led manager Steve Bruce to freeze him out of the first-team squad, and Petrov believes that Mark Warburton will have pulled off a major coup if he can persuade Hepburn-Murphy to commit to the light blues.

“Rushian is a very exciting young striker,” Petrov said. “He’s very quick and he would make a difference for Rangers.

“He’s one of those players that you love to have in the team but you hate to play against.

“He’s a very exciting young prospect and I would like to see Rushian moving away from Villa and having a chance somewhere to progress because he’s got tons of ability.

“He hasn’t asked me about Scotland, but I’m going in next week so we’ll probably have a conversation if he wants to know anything about it.”