Rangers announced their first signing of the January transfer window and it was on that could make us a small fortune.
At just 17-years old, Leon King has attracted the attention of some of the biggest clubs in Europe with Aston Villa also sniffing around, so being able to persuade him to stick around until the summer of 2024 buys us a bit of breathing space and gives the centre-half a chance to break into Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s first-team plans.
That will be made an awful lot easier with his promotion, full-time, into the senior squad having played with the B and academy team this year, with two appearances under Steven Gerrard, King will be hoping to make a similar impression under the new gaffer – one with a history of putting his trust in youth players.
Speaking to the official Rangers website, sporting director Ross Wilson revealed just how happy he is to have the deal concluded and confirmed the plans for Leon’s future:
“Leon is a great kid and one that I’m delighted will continue on his journey at Rangers.
“Over the last couple of seasons Leon has already played in the Rangers first-team and had significant training exposure with our first-team group. He’s handled everything that we’ve challenged him with so far, and the support that he’s received across the club to aid his development has been excellent.
“It’s important that every one of our young players at this stage has a clear plan and for Leon he will now move into the first-team group under van Bronckhorst on a permanent basis between now and the end of the season.”
With Nathan Patterson away, there has been plenty of speculation about who might be trusted to fill in for James Tavernier and this is as good an indication that King is very much in Gio’s plans for the remainder of the season, if he hadn’t been impressing in training with the first-team squad, there is no way he would be given this opportunity.
As we saw with Patterson, protecting the value of academy graduates is huge, would we have received a club record transfer fee if he only had six-months left on his deal? Not a chance.
Let’s hope that King can go on and emulate his former team-mate, not just in making us a fortune, but in proving that the academy can produce some outstanding young players, saving us millions in the process.