The price of success in football is that your players instantly become higher profile and, as as result, become in demand by those further up the food chain.
Unfortunately, Rangers fans now have to accept that we are a selling club, the standing of the Scottish Premiership and the income it brings in dictates this but thankfully, due to the work of Ross Wilson, his predecessor Mark Allen and an elite scouting and recruitment team, we have a squad worth an awful lot more than it used to be.
The latest rumour has seen Lazio been linked with a return for Ianis Hagi, the Italian giants were rumoured to be interested when Rangers had an exclusive option to buy deal with Genk but had to miss out the Light Blues decided to make the move permanent – Wilson negotiating the price down in the process.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport and reported by The Daily Record, Hagi is said to be the subject of a big in the region of £9million (€10m the original figure quoted), a fee that would almost treble the original investment made on the Romanian international.
He has had an impressive first full season with Rangers with seven goals and 12 assists but it would be hard to turn a bid of that value – scoring his first international goal may bump up his price tag though – Hagi has spoken before about his love of the club and that he is in the best place to develop his game but sometimes economics come first.
It’s a tough decision to make and one that will come down to choosing which of Steven Gerrard’s regular starters are easier to replace and would we get even more for them a year further down the line?
I love Hagi, he is raw but he has that ability to create something out of nothing that few players possess, thankfully it’s not me having to make the decision.