The three elephants in the Rangers recruitment office this summer are the contracts of Joe Aribo, Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent, what happens with them and what decisions they make could very well shape our summer transfer plans and the budget available to Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
Personally, I think that Kent and Morelos will stay – despite the recent speculation linking the Colombian to Sevilla – and that Aribo will be the biggest name to leave this summer, alongside Glen Kamara with Brighton said to be eyeing a bid for the 26-year old.
An ideal scenario sees clubs in the Premier League making bids because we all know exactly how deep their pockets are and, according to allnigeriasoccer.com, that is exactly the case for Aribo who has been capped 20 times by Nigeria:
“Premier League newcomers Fulham and Nottingham Forest, and Crystal Palace are the three Premier League teams really interested in signing the Nigeria international this summer.
“The 25-year-old was previously linked with the likes of Southampton, Brentford and Aston Villa, however, their interest is not concrete as of yet.”
With Aribo into the last 12-months of his contract, and probably in the last year that we can make a decent profit given he has yet to hit his peak, now is the time to sell if we have any decent offers, thankfully, other than in the case of Kent, if we sell Morelos, Kamara or Aribo it is almost all profit given what we paid for them – this doesn’t mean that they should leave for anything less than market value though.
In modern football, players will always leave clubs for free, trying to minimise this is one of Ross Wilson’s main jobs but he has been unlucky to a certain extent that most of our players were recruited at the same time so this was always going to be an issue at some point. If only one of the players of value brought in by Steven Gerrard leaves for free then it is a job well done, if we can secure them all to new contracts and sell those that don’t, then our sporting director deserves a pay rise, not the criticism he is currently getting.
Personally i think that unless the 3 guys mentioned are willing to sign new deals then Rangers will look to recoup transfer fees. We are a business first and foremost so we are not in a position to shell out £7 million for guys like Kent and allow him to become a free agent. That is not healthy for us so if these guys do not sign new deals then they will be transferred in my opinion. Hope they sign though. WATP