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Philippe Clement makes Jack Butland call at Rangers amid Birmingham City transfer interest
Jack Butland would only be sold in January if Rangers received an “over-inflated offer” for him amid interest from Birmingham City, according to The Scotsman.
The paper reported on their website on 19 October that the English keeper is one of the “most valuable” members of the Gers squad and is “expected to remain” number one for new boss Philippe Clement after the manager met the squad this week.
The Sun had reported on 14 October that new Birmingham boss Wayne Rooney wanted to bring Butland, 30, back to St Andrews where he started his career.
However, the Scotsman report suggests there is currently no interest at Ibrox in allowing that to happen during the winter window, while leaving the door open for big money to change that stance.
Key
Logically there is no reason whatsoever for Clement to rock the boat in just about the only area where things haven’t been problematic this season.
Much has been made of how the summer transfer business has not paid off, but the free transfer arrival of the former England international Butland from Crystal Palace certainly has.
Given his profile, history internationally and in the Premier League, and relatively good age, transfer interest in taking him back south was going to fire up sooner or later if he performed well.
It may be that by the summer an offer of enough money, from a big enough club, is too good for Rangers or Butland to turn down.
But that seems unlikely from Birmingham in January, while heading back to the Championship midseason would destabilise Clement’s rebuilding project and probably needs to be avoided unless it can fund an unwanted second squad revamp of the year.
In theory Robby McCrorie is, for now, a solid replacement but he wasn’t able to win the starting job after being given a run late last term and has been linked with an exit of his own.
If Butland is going to be prized away in the next couple of windows though the club need to be careful to work something out with the homegrown man to save the Light Blues being left high and dry without any viable starters.
In other Rangers news, a former Gers man has admitted to gambling on matches with teammates while at Ibrox.