At Rangers, every penny counts so, when we do spend it, we have to make sure that it isn’t going to waste.
We will always see free transfers and pre-contract agreements in the future purely because of how much money they save us, it also allows us to attract the sort of player that, normally, we maybe wouldn’t be able to afford.
This summer, we saw Ridvan Yilmaz and Ben Davies arrive for decent fees – £3-4million each, give or take – and they look like they could be quality additions over the next few years. Rabbi Matondo has yet to really show what he is capable of but, at 21-years old, and with a decent pedigree, £2m is probably under the going rate for a player of his profile.
Players like Joey Veerman and Andreas Skov Olsen have seemingly been missed in the past because they have been too expensive, however, there are some players that are worth the extra few pounds with Billy Gilmour, in particular, being one of them.
Home grown, an established international, proven at the highest level and a Rangers fan, Gilmour ticks an awful lot of boxes. It’s also hard to believe that he is still only 21-years old given how long he has been around.
Speaking to Football Insider, Alan Hutton reckons that a return to Ibrox could be exactly what he needs to rejuvenate a career fast in danger of drifting away:
“I do not think you turn anything down.
“I think he will have to think about where his career is going at this moment in time. It has been difficult for him. He is an excellent player, he is still very young.
“It did not work at Chelsea, going to Brighton he has not had much game time so he needs to do what is best for him moving forward and that is playing football.
“There is no point in him leaving on loan to go to another Prem team. The opportunity to come back home, play in a top team in front of 50,000 every other week could be a good opportunity for him to shine and show everybody how good he is.“
Brighton paid around £9m for Gilmour and there is no way that we would go that high but, if we sell Kamara for between £6-8m then there is no reason why we shouldn’t be looking at signing someone who could form part of our team for the next decade.
Gilmour was signed by Graham Potter but clearly isn’t fancied at the Amex by Roberto de Zerbi.
On loan, I wouldn’t be interested but, if the board are serious about backing Michael Beale, a bid for Gilmour wouldn’t be a bad place to start.