Lee Clark once tipped Jack Butland to become the best keeper in Europe.
Ten years on he hopes the shot-stopper will finally get the platform to show he belongs at the top with a club he regards as one of the continent’s biggest. Rangers are understood to be closing in on a deal for Butland who has spent the past three years sitting on his backside on the bench at Crystal Palace or, more recently, on loan at Manchester United. Clark reckons a move to Govan would be perfect for the 30-year-old to get his career back on track.
The Geordie handed the keeper his big breakthrough at Birmingham 11 years ago and still wonders what might have been had he not been forced to sell the prize asset in his second season at the cash-stricken Blues. Brum’s rush it might have been for Butland who moved to Stoke in the Premier League for £3.5million. But Clark claimed at the time he’d lost a player who was set to become “long term, in my opinion, the best goalkeeper in Europe”.
