Lee Bowyer was livid at the time and couldn't hold back when Joe Aribo decided to leave his then English League One side Charlton for a move to Rangers.
Aribo opted for a switch to the Scottish Premiership back in 2019 rather than stick it out in the English lower leagues at The Valley or opt for a potential English Championship suitor. Bowyer insisted a move north of the border would be the equivalent of retirement - claiming that only players coming to the end of their careers moved north of the border. How wrong could he have been?
Since his move, Aribo has only went from strength to strength lifting the Scottish Premiership and Scottish Cup, as well as scoring in a Europa League final and becoming a mainstay for Nigeria in the international scene. With a year left on his current contract, Aribo is set to bring the curtain down on his time with Rangers and join Southampton.
It's a move that Bowyer didn't see coming. In fact, he thought Aribo would be back in the English Championship once again before reaching the Premier League. At the time, Bowyer blasted: “It doesn’t make sense on the football side. When people from England go and play for Celtic and Rangers it is at the end of their careers.
"That’s because it is very rare you get a move from Rangers to the Premier League, and I don’t mean any disrespect by that. They might go from Rangers to the Championship, very rarely is it to the Premier League. For me he should stay in England and keep progressing. The move should benefit Joe."
With Aribo making his mark both domestically and in European football ahead of the switch to St Mary's, the playmaker has silenced his critic. In the process, the £300,000 Rangers recruit is set to earn his current club a bumper profit with Southampton set to pay a fee that could rise to £10million.
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