Calvin Bassey was closing in on a record-breaking Rangers exit on Saturday night as Gio van Bronckhorst admitted the chances he will leave Ibrox are “very, very high”.
Bassey was absent as Rangers stepped-up their pre-season with a 2-1 over Blackpool at Bloomfield. And van Bronckhorst expects he will again be missing for the friendlies against West Ham and Tottenham with it looking increasingly likely he has played his last game for the club.
Ajax are front of the queue for the Nigeria international with a fee of around €22m plus add-ons understood to have been agreed on Saturday night. And while Brighton are also serious about taking the former Leicester defender back to England it looks as if the Eredivisie giants have won the race for a player signed for just under £300,000 two years ago.
Van Bronckhorst confirmed Rangers would move for a replacement should the 22-year-old - who has two years left on his deal in Govan - finalise his move out of Ibrox in the coming days and weeks. And the Dutchman said: “The chances Calvin will leave are very, very high.
“I don’t think I will have him for this week’s friendlies or the start of the season so that’s why we left him home. There are several clubs. I spoke with Ross and he’s dealing with all the interest. I am concentrated on preparing the team for the last week of friendly games.
“The most important thing is that the club is doing everything in their best interest, and that means we might sell. We heard about the interest in Calvin this week from different clubs. You know that if you have players who perform well the interest will come.
“It went to a level where the club thinks the deal might be happening, so that’s why I spoke to Calvin yesterday and decided to leave him home. We just wait to see what will happen in the coming days to see what will happen but obviously when he isn’t here we are not taking the risk.”
Ajax coach Alfred Schreuder has pinpointed Bassey - who excelled in Rangers’ run the Europa League final last season - as a replacement for Lisandro Martinez who is Manchester United bound. And with a fee topping £20m added to the £10m from Joe Aribo’s move to Southampton last week and the record £13m banked after Nathan Patterson moved to Everton in January Rangers look set to sell.
Asked how much he could get to reinvest in his squad Van Bronckhorst said: “No, I don’t know the figure. We’ve done really well so far in getting new players in the positions where positions left so I’m really happy with that.
“We might lose Calvin so we have to move on and be ready for possible players coming in. If Calvin is going, he was a left back and a left central defender, so we will look at the qualities of the player and the dynamic to see if we move for one player or two.
“I really enjoyed working with Calvin the last six months. His development was incredible how he developed into a central defender – and sometimes as a left back. A player like him came from the second team (at Leicester) and developed into a top class defender and that’s what you want at your club. I’m very proud to be part of that, so he will move on to the next level and develop even more. Of course the club will make money financially too.
“You always have to be ready because you just never know when you are going to lose players. You have to have your list ready for possible players coming in. I think we are well prepared for anything that can happen. For Calvin it’s a nice move and for the club as well business wise it’s what you want to do.”
Second half goals from Borna Barisic and Charlie McCann earned Rangers a 2-1 win in Blackpool as they stepped up their pre-season preparations. Antonio Colak was given 78 minutes while fellow new signings John Souttar, Tom Lawrence and Rabbi Matondo all came off the bench in the second half.
Van Bronckhorst said: “We played really well, it felt like we played at home with the amazing support we had here. It gives you so much extra energy and today we played with a much better pace than we did in Portugal, we looked much fitter.”
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