Rangers’ £20m valuation of Calvin Bassey is lowest they can accept – Arthur Numan
Calvin Bassey’s sensational end to the 2021-22 season for Rangers has understandably seen teams from abroad become interested.
The 22-year-old was the man of the match in the Europa League final in Seville as the Light Blues were beaten on penalties by Eintracht Frankfurt and that really brought him to the attention of the wider football landscape.
He followed that up with another top display in the Scottish Cup final the following weekend against Hearts and this time got his hands on the trophy at Hampden Park former and Bear Arthur Numan thinks the club need to stand firm with their valuation on the Nigerian.
“When you reach a European Final and three of your players – James Tavernier, Ryan Kent and Calvin Bassey – get in the Europa League Team of the Season, clubs from the wealthier leagues take notice,” Numan said, as quoted by the Daily Record.
“Calvin appears to be the name on everyone’s lips at the moment and he has earned it. He has two years left to run on his contract and I’m sure Giovanni will want to keep him. But that can’t stop clubs from England or abroad bidding for him.
“The starting price has been suggested at around the £20million mark and I can’t disagree with that valuation.”
Generational
When it comes to sheer physicality and putting that fear factor into an opposition attacker, very few defenders can dominate in the same way Bassey can.
So often we’ve seen opposition players try to run the ball away from the big man at the back or even turn around and pass because they don’t fancy getting bodied in an embarrassing fashion in front of a global audience by trying to dribble past him.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst recognised this and chose to move him to centre-half from left-back towards the end of the season and the backline was infinitely stronger as a result.
It did mean Borna Barisic had to play a lot more than we’d have liked but with the 22-year-old covering for him, his defensive frailties were almost swept under the carpet.
He’s certainly the best defender in Scotland right now and if he is to move elsewhere, he would be the number one man there too because he is just that good.
In other Rangers news, we could have had a very different name to our famous club had conversations in the 19th century gone another direction.