For years we’ve had to pay players off or see them leave for nothing with Josh Windass being our biggest sale in nearly a decade.
Now though, with success both at home and on the continent, we have seen a host of clubs being linked with our star performers and one of those, Joe Aribo, is said to be attracting the interest of Galatasaray, with figures between £3.5m and £9million being mentioned – they must have forgotten the “1” at the front of those fees.
Times change though and, speaking to Football Insider, Kevin Phillips believes that this sort of move is no longer a step up for Rangers players and reckons that the Premier League should be the natural career progression:
“Why would he leave? Unless he gets the chance to go and play in the Premier League, that’s the next step for players at clubs like Rangers and Celtic, we’ve seen that over the years.
“But why would he leave when he knows he’s playing European football next year and is going to be challenging for the title?
“They’ve got those huge games to look forward to.
“I don’t see why he would want to leave what’s going on up there. Something is being built there that’s exciting, and he’s got a world-class player as his manager who is making big strides.”
Phillips is right, for a start it was Galatasaray that we knocked out of the Europa League last season, they aren’t any better than us now, a player doesn’t move to Rangers hoping to use it as a stepping stone to the Superliga, they take the gamble that it will earn them a move to the promised land that is England’s top flight.
If Aribo is patient he will have his pick of clubs, he’s been unlucky in both of his seasons that he has suffered from a couple injuries that meant a prolonged period on the sidelines and yet still produced some breathtaking moments and decent numbers.
We are yet to see the best of the Nigerian international but when he does leave, the only way is up.