A player is only worth what one team is willing to pay and another is willing to accept – remember that.
Joe Worrall is worth £10million, that’s three times what we paid for either Connor Goldson or Filip Helander, then when you add Leon Balogun, Niko Katic, Jack Simpson and George Edmundson, it’s more than our six centre halves put together.
This is the figure that is being banded about though as Premier League sides look to persuade the former Rangers loanee to leave his boyhood club and take a step up in level in what is the very definition of English transfer market.
One of the more likely destinations is Burnley who have centre-half paring Ben Mee and James Tarkowski entering the last year of their contracts, again, both of these players are likely to go for ridiculous fees – the latter being valued at over £20m – despite how long he has left on his deal.
Now, if you were given the choice, who would you rather have, Worrall or Helander? Not just on a basic level of “who is the better player?” but if you were manager of Rangers or Burnley, who would you sign? If you said “Worrall” you need your head looking at.
Which brings me back to my original point, Filip Helander in the English Championship is a £10m defender – at least – he is an established international about to play in a major tournament. Goldson may be coming up to the last year of his contract but that doesn’t mean we should accept peanuts for him either, I’ve no doubt that you could put Steven Gerrard’s first choice pairing into the Burnley team and they wouldn’t look out of place.
It’s not that I’m in a hurry to see such a good defensive pairing split up, I just can’t get my head around why you would sign Joe Worrall for £10m….