The Clarets accepted an offer of £3m, plus £250,000 in add ons, a 10% sell on and Gow for Lafferty on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old Northern Ireland international agreed personal terms at Ibrox.

But at the time of going to press, Gow had yet to commit himself to the move south after two days of talks, and yesterday met Rangers chief executive Martin Bain to try and bring things to a head.

Burnley were confident the deal would go through for the 25-year-old forward, but it is thought a severance payment from Rangers, where he had two years left on his contract, was the stumbling block.

Gow's agent Phil McTaggart said: "We are still in talks at the moment and nothing has been agreed yet.

"Hopefully something will be sorted sooner rather than later for everyone involved.

"If everything goes right, then Burnley is a great opportunity and Alan knows that.

"It's a good club, with a great manager who knows him inside out, and it could be ideal. But the personal terms have to be right."

Should Gow, who is also believed to be interesting Dundee United boss Craig Levein, who is eyeing a loan deal, turn down the opportunity to join the Clarets, Lafferty could well be denied his dream move and be put back on the market, to see if Celtic, Wolves and Ipswich, who all registered an interest, would be prepared to offer a suitable deal.

It also remains to be seen whether Rangers could offer a financial solution, or throw another possible makeweight into the equation.

Celtic hold a trump card in the shape of Clarets target Derek Riordan, with their best offer so far being £2.75m, Riordan and a lucrative friendly.While Wolves, in the meantime, appear to have turned their attentions to Peterborough's Aaron McLean.

Although a different type of forward altogether, standing at 5ft 8ins, Wolves have had a £1m bid for McLean turned down by the Posh.

The 25-year-old, who scored 33 goals as Darren Ferguson's side were promoted as League 2 runners-up last season, played at Grays alongside Wolves wideman Michael Kightly.

Former Wolves midfielder Ferguson said: "Wolves have made a bid, but we dismissed it out of hand.

"For a start it was nowhere near enough, but we are not interested in selling any of our better players and we have no need to anyway.

"There has been a lot of speculation about Aaron, but this is the only offer we have had.

"Aaron is fully aware of what's going on and he's happy with the way we've dealt with things.

"Wolves may come back to us, but I seriously doubt they could tempt us to sell."

Should the Lafferty deal finally go through after a drawn-out saga, Burnley boss Owen Coyle would see his transfer warchest significantly boosted.

Chairman Barry Kilby has suggested "money from any deal will be made available for Owen to strengthen the squad".

That would leave Coyle with a stronger hand to pursue his targets.

He has already had bids turned down for Scunthorpe United striker Martin Paterson, Hearts winger Andrew Driver.

And there has been reported interest in the likes of Mark Kerr at Dundee United, Dundee's Kevin McDonald, Darren Carr of Falkirk, Norwich's Darel Russell and Blackpool pair Kaspars Gorkss and Stephen Crainey.

Paterson, who had a transfer request turned down by Scunthorpe chairman Steve Wharton last week, could yet replace his Northern Ireland international colleague at Turf Moor, and is believed to favour a move to Burnley, amid interest from Cardiff and Norwich.

Burnley had an offer of £400,000, and an improved bid of £450,000 plus £100,000 in add-ons, and a further installment depending on promotion to the Premier League, rejected by the Iron.

But it is thought £750,000 would secure the services of the former Stoke man.