One position that Rangers fans probably didn’t expect us see mentioned in the transfer rumour department as early in the transfer window will have been a left-back, Borna Barisic has a few years left on his contract and Calvin Bassey – despite the reported interest – is hardly being chased out the door.
So, when Alan Nixon, a journalist well known for providing transfer stories, claimed that Giovanni van Bronckhorst was eyeing a move for Stoke City’s Josh Tymon, it certainly got tongues wagging.
Rangers keen on top left back https://t.co/5ImMNWkZBx
— Alan Nixon (@reluctantnicko) June 5, 2022
The 23-year old is an England youth international capable of playing at left-back or in a back three a system Gio has gone to on a few occasions since taking over, Bassey has this ability and Barisic has done it for Croatia but we haven’t really seen him do it for Rangers.
some pretty decent numbers pic.twitter.com/IyMqgZinhL
— Patrick Caskie (@patrickcaskie) June 4, 2022
Surprisingly, Tymon still has three years left on his Stoke contract which means that, if we are interested in making a bid, he would cost a decent transfer fee, the valuations in England’s second tier are every bit as inflated as those in the Premier League.
Tymon looks like he is a hybrid between Bassey and Barisic, although, as analyst Patrick Caskie’s graphic shows, he doesn’t seem to be as competent at defending as the Gers pair – his passing, dribbling and crossing numbers do make for better reading though.
If money is tight, it would be strange seeing us spend big on a left-back even if Barisic or Bassey goes because we would still have someone capable of playing as the first choice week in, week out. I suspect that Tymon is a player we are keeping an eye on and should extra money become available, then he might get bumped up the list of priorities – it’s a decent rumour from a decent source so it’s one that we should be keeping an eye on nonetheless.
Typical bollocks at this time of the year.