Much of the talk following Rangers 4-2 win over Ross County wasn’t about the performance but about speculation linking one of the Auchenowie academy’s finest graduates being linked with a move to the Premier League.
Nathan Patterson is never far from the back pages, a prodigious talent who, no doubt, has a huge future in the gam either at Ibrox or at a team from a top five league, in short, he’s a generational player, one that doesn’t come along very often which makes Steven Gerrard’s response to the £5million bid from Everton all the more understandable.
Fan media is rapidly evolving in Scotland, more so when it comes to all things Rangers, the media “blackout” by the club means that it is the amateurs rather than the professionals who are better connected in terms of transfer speculation.
One such outlet is The 4th Official, with over 41,000 followers on Twitter, the site is one of the most influential and well connected in Scottish football, and they have provided a fascinating insight into the offer from the Goodison Park outfit:
“John Cross revealed that Everton made a £5m bid for Nathan Patterson. His article talks about there being a dilemma for Rangers as Tavernier is the first choice.
“One, there’s no dilemma for Rangers. This is the breakthrough season for the youngster and there is no doubt he would get plenty of opportunities. Also, the £5m figure is a bit misleading. I actually had a couple of sources who confirmed to me that the guaranteed part of the bid was closer to £4.2m. There are clauses for Champions League qualification which doesn’t really help Rangers now.
“I was told that Rangers didn’t even take this bid seriously. David Edgar of Heart and Hand revealed that it was not being considered and rejected. I have no doubt in my mind that Rangers are not going to consider any bid below 8 figures.”
The Gers gaffer appeared not to know about any bid, whether or not this was just to emphasise his opinion on the offer. I’m not entirely sure, but he did later clarify that it isn’t his role to be involved with discussions of this nature and that it is down to Ross Wilson, the sporting director, and the board to inform him if a “respectable” bid comes in for one of his first-team players.
A fee of £5m for probably the country’s most exciting prospect since Kieran Tierney – who went for £25m remember – is derisory and Everton are clearly trying to sign him before he makes an even bigger name for himself, yes, he has James Tavernier in front of him, but this shouldn’t diminish his value or make the fact that he could go on to be a superstar any less relevant.
Alan Hutton left Rangers for £9million a decade ago and Patterson has shown potential way above anything that the former Spurs right-back did in his early years, The 4th Official is right, anything less than a club record fee will be treated with the disdain it deserves, the days of underselling our best players are long since gone.