Gio readies Gers for life without talisman Bassey
BLACKPOOL 1 Lubala (89) RANGERS 2
Barisic (51), Mccann (76)
By Russell Stoddart
Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst admits that Calvin Bassey has almost certainly played his last game for the club.
The Nigerian defender is heading for the Ibrox exit door with Dutch champions Ajax favourites to land him for a Rangers club record fee.
The 22- year- old was a notable absentee from Rangers’ 2- 1 pre- season victory at Blackpool where summer signings Antonio Colak, John Souttar, Tom Lawrence and Rabbi Matondo made their debuts, while Friday’s loan signing Malik Tillman took a seat in the stands.
Bronckhorst made clear that he is preparing for the new season without Bassey, his talisman central defender who played such a key role in the club’s march to last season’s Europa League final.
The Dutchman said: “I think the chance that he will leave is very, very high. I don’t think I will have him for this week’s friendlies.
“The interest in Calvin was this week from different clubs. You know if you have players who perform well then that interest will come.
“It got to a level where the club thought a deal might be happening.
“That is why I talked to Calvin yesterday and decided to leave him home.
“Now we just wait for the coming days to see what will happen.”
Van Bronckhorst refused to be drawn on Bassey’s destination with Premier League clubs Brighton and Aston Villa also believed to have shown interest.
And while he doesn’t know the size of the fee involved, Van Bronckhorst hopes he will get a sizeable chunk to reinvest in the squad with their competitive season’s opener at Livingston less than two weeks away.
He added: “The club is doing everything in its best interests and the best interests for the club is that we might sell.
“We have a lot of positives to take from this. I
really enjoyed working with Calvin in the last six months.
“He came from Leicester’s second team and turned into a top-class defender is what you want from a club. I am very proud to be part of that.
“He will move on to next level and I will expect the club will make good money, which is good for us.
“We have done well so far bringing in new players. We might lose Calvin but we’re working hard for possible players coming in.”
More than 8,000 Rangers fans descended on Blackpool for the club’s first 90 minutes of preseason after their friendly with Sunderland was cut short last week after an electrical fault at the stadium.
Second- half goals from Borna Barisic and Charlie Mccann got their delayed campaign off to a winning start.
Barisic did his chances of filling Bassey’s shoes no harm and his right- footed curler into the far corner to open the scoring soon after the restart capped a solid individual display.
Croatian striker Colak was the only new recruit to start and had a first- half effort ruled out for offside, but impressed with his tireless running and hold-up play.
It was left to Charlie Mccann to settle the game, firing home after the home side failed to clear a Scott Arfield corner.
Souttar, Lawrence and Malondo had cameos in the last half-hour as Van Bronckhorst beds in his new-look squad.
It was a decent workout for the Scottish side despite Beryly Lubala denying them a cleansheet with a late consolation for the Seasiders.
“We played really well,” added Van Bronckhorst.
“It felt like we played at home with the amazing support we had here.
“Today we played at a much better pace than we did last week in Portugal. Some players had their first game and I was happy that everyone got to feature.”
RANGERS:
(4-3-3) Mcgregor (Mclaughlin 45); Tavernier (King 61), Goldson (Souttar 61), Sands (Katic 61), Barisic (Devine 61); Kamara (Davis 45), Jack (Mccann 61), Lundstram (Matondo 61); Wright (Lawrence 61), Kent (Arfield 45), Colak (Middleton 78). Unused subs – Mccrorie, Zukowski, Kelly.