Former Glasgow Rangers sporting director Ross Wilson endured his fair share of transfer blinders and howlers throughout his tenure at Ibrox. The English chief, who departed from Glasgow last year, signed the likes of John Lundstram, Fashion Sakala, Leon Balogun, and Ianis Hagi for the Gers. However, he also brought in the likes of Cedric Itten, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Simpson, and James Sands, who failed to shine with the Light Blues.
Wilson did, though, rake in big money from player sales. Per Transfermarkt, the two biggest sales in the club’s history – Nathan Patterson and Calvin Bassey – both came during his time at Ibrox.
Rangers brought in a huge fee from Ajax when they sold central defender Bassey back in the summer of 2022.
However, when you adjust for the inflation of transfer fees in football over the year, the Gers once made a more valuable sale in the form of Barry Ferguson’s move to Blackburn Rovers back in 2003.
Rangers’ Calvin Bassey masterclass
The versatile defender came up through the ranks at Leicester City before the Scottish giants swooped in to sign him from the English side for £230k in compensation in the summer of 2020.
Bassey played a bit-part role under Steven Gerrard, whose assistant was Michael Beale at the time, during the 2020/21 campaign, with just 15 appearances in all competitions.
Eight of those outings came in the Scottish Premiership as Rangers won the league title ahead of Celtic, whilst he also played three times in the group stages of the Europa League.
The following season, Bassey emerged as a first-team regular under Gerrard and then Dutch boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst during the 2021/22 campaign.
| 21/22 Premiership | Calvin Bassey |
|---|---|
| Appearances | 29 |
| Assists | 3 |
| Ground duel success rate | 64% |
| Aerial duel success rate | 61% |
| Clean sheets | 13 |
As you can see in the table above, the left-footed enforcer, who was utilised at both left-back and centre-back throughout the season, showcased his dominant defensive quality by winning the majority of his duels on the deck and in the air.
Bassey also played an important role in Rangers’ run to the final of the Europa League, which they lost on penalties to Eintracht Frankfurt, with a duel success rate of 60% across 14 outings in the competition.
The Nigeria international, who also assisted two goals during that European run, ended the campaign with 50 first-team appearances under his belt.
His form convinced Dutch giants Ajax to swoop for his services in the summer of 2022, for a fee Sky Sports reported to be £19.6m rising to £22.7m with add-ons.
This shows that Rangers played a masterclass with Bassey, who now plays for Fulham in the Premier League, as they snapped him up from Leicester in 2020 and sold him for a club-record £19.6m just two years later.
The Gers hit the jackpot with the versatile defender, particularly when you consider that his value then dropped as the Cottagers signed him for £19.3m from Ajax just one year later.
Rangers, arguably, hit a bigger jackpot when they brought Ferguson through their academy set-up in the 1990s as the central midfielder starred on the pitch before being sold for a significant fee.
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