Birmingham City mooted to ‘force Rangers’ hand’ with huge Jack Butland offer for Wayne Rooney – BBC pundit
The only thing Birmingham City can do if they want to sign Jack Butland is make a “big offer” in January and hope it “would force Rangers’ hand”, according to Carlton Palmer.
The BBC pundit, speaking to Football League World (20 October), reacted to reports that new St. Andrew’s boss Wayne Rooney has identified the Ibrox keeper as a key target [The Sun, 14 October], along with the reaction from Glasgow that he isn’t for sale.
Palmer suggested that any move is going to be a very expensive one once transfer fee and wages are factored in, and put the ball in the English Championship side’s court ahead of the winter window.
Palmer said: “Glasgow Rangers have a firm stance on Jack Butland, who has been their standout signing from the summer.
“He has performed very, very well there and they are making a stance that they do not want to sell him.
“So, all Birmingham can do is make a big offer in the January transfer window, and hope that would force Rangers’ hands to sell.
“But, they have to look at the factors that Jack is approaching 31 now, still relatively young for a goalkeeper, but then they’ve got his salary on top.
“So, it’s a case of yes, Wayne Rooney wants to bring in another goalkeeper as his number one, he’s identified Jack Butland, and it’s a question of how much they’re prepared to pay for Rangers to release him.”
Not yet
Perhaps if a few more of the squad at Ibrox had been performing better so far there wouldn’t a giant flashing light above Butland’s head singling him out as a potential target.
But either way, him performing well after arriving at Rangers this summer would potentially see him attracting interest back in England due this profile there and history in the national team.
Unless the Light Blues hierarchy are ready to facilitate an overhaul of the squad for Philippe Clement in January it is hard to see the club being moved by anything but crazy money for their starting keeper midseason.
Come the end of the campaign it might be necessary to cash in to give the new manager the money to clear up Michael Beale’s mess properly.
But, unless the new owners at Birmingham are planning on making a huge splash it would come as a surprise for Butland to not see out the season in Glasgow.
Perhaps if Clement is able to bring about a team-wide improvement it might strengthen the performances enough to instead rely on Robby McCrorie, but for now it would be a major risk to remove the one solid element of this shaky side.
In other Rangers news, a former Light Blues man has admitted to regularly betting on games with his teammates while at the club.