The former Stevenage player made one appearance coming off the bench for Arsenal and has also played for Bradford, Birmingham, Bolton, Barnsley when they in the Premiership.

Rankin scored the winning goal for Grimsby in a League 2 match against Boston when the Reds' boss was their manager, and since then the dangerous frontman has been a target for current Town manager.

See our exclusive video interview with Paul Raynor about the player after Tuesday's 6-1 win against Spurs by clicking the green button above.

Evans added: "He is a tremendous signing, is very industrious
and his movement is exceptional.

"He will provide great competition to Jon-Paul Pittman and Steve
Fletcher.

"If we can get him to concentrate properly on his football then we
have an absolute gem.

"He has raised considerable interest and his choice of club was never
about money.

"He wanted a real incentive and could have chosen a team offering higher wages such as Ebbsfleet or Cambridge Utd.

"I have every confidence myself and Paul Raynor can get the best
out of him.

"If we can get anywhere near the best out of him then he could just turn out to be the best signing of the season.

"We just need to get him focussed."

The former Gunner has an impressive track record and an idea as to his quality comes from a glance at the value some of his previous clubs have been willing to pay for him.

Bradford paid £1.3million for him in 1998 after Arsene Wenger decided
to let him go after two years at Highbury.

His highest goal tally came for west London club Brentford, where
he played for two years from 2004 to 2006 and scored 15 goals.