Rangers to prove strong-headed with Calvin Bassey’s Premier League move

After a stellar season at Scottish club, Rangers, Super Eagles’ Calvin Bassey is rumored for an exit from the club as reports of interest from Premier League club, Aston Villa holds over his shoulders.

Bassey, 22, enjoyed a great 2021-22 campaign with Rangers after becoming a mainstay at left-back and centre-back in the recently concluded season. The defender clocked up 50 of his 65 career appearances helping the Gers to the Europa League final.

After such performances, former Manager, Steven Gerrard is said to have interests towards bringing him to current club, Aston Villa.

The former Rangers boss was the one who brought Bassey to the Scottish club back in 2020 from Leicester City, with both parties favoring the idea of a link up again. But a discouraging factor to Gerrard and Villa will be Rangers’ price range to enable such move.

And according to football analyst, Alex McLeish on STV, he expects Rangers to request from Aston Villa similar fees Celtic requested when Arsenal poached Kieran Tierney.

“I would say yes,” McLeish said, when asked whether he would command a similar fee to Tierney’s sale to Arsenal commanded. “In the beginning when I saw Bassey I wasn’t sure if he was a left full-back, wing-back, centre-back.

“He’s been versatile enough to play in all three positions. I really enjoyed his cup final performance and that’s made me see why there’s so much attention being paid to him at the moment.”

In addition to guiding Rangers to the Europa League Final, Calvin Bassey also led the club to success in the Scottish Cup, their second silverware since returning to the top flight of Scottish football.

Bassey’s pace, power and form has attracted his old manager, Gerrard as he believes Villa could benefit from it.

The Nigerian International though has a contract at Rangers till the summer of 2024 which very much could give Rangers the upper hand in negotiations