With the pending sale of Calvin Bassey, Rangers have secured another crucial cornerstone of the overall recovery of the club.
Following the well documented events of a decade ago, the plunge to the abyss and everything that followed for a few years, the catalyst for change was the 2015 EGM that finally saw Rangers FC back in the hands of those who has it’s best interests at heart.
Months later, promotion to the Premiership was secured to complete an important step forward but things didn’t progress further until the arrival of Steven Gerrard in the Summer of 2018. The next three seasons would be a whirlwind. European respectability was immediately restored after the previous embarrassment. That would become stability and more with three solid years of Europa League football.
2021 saw the long awaited, desperately craved and desired league title. 55 and everything else that came with it…in the middle of a pandemic and empty stadiums. Regardless, Rangers were champions again.
Last season was very much a mixed bag, soaring highs and deflating lows. Champions League failure kicked off the season which was finished with another Euro final for the club – the Europa League decider in Seville. That proved to be a very small step too far but amid the heartbreak, the club had reached a new level in terms of that recovery from 2012.
It was done with Gio van Bronckhorst, who had replaced Steven Gerrard following his switch to Aston Villa mid-season. Following that departure was the sale of Nathan Patterson to Everton. It would be the first of three very significant transfers for the club. The others being the recent exit of Joe Aribo to Southampton and now, just to be confirmed, the record sale for the club of Calvin Bassey moving to amazing Amsterdam and Ajax. The latter two also lifted the Scottish Cup in May, the first proper domestic cup in 13 years.
A youth product and two English imports, picked up for relative peanuts, to be improved and sold for serious money albeit under different circumstances. Aribo’s contract situation directly affected his transfer fee – which will likely meet the £10 million release clause as part of the deal that brought him to Ibrox.
Europe, title number 55 and the much awaited ‘trading model’. Rangers are back acting like a serious club and whilst there is still work to be done on and off the pitch to improve many aspects, things are moving in the right direction for sure.
That movement can be further turbo-charged with the fortune, fame and fun of Champions League football, just four games away.