Rangers sit top of the Scottish Premiership table after 13 games and are four points clear of their arch-rivals Celtic heading towards the end of the final international break of 2021.
The Gers have won nine of their 13 matches and racked up 30 points, with a number of players impressing across the pitch.
One interesting sub-plot of this season has been the competition at left-back, with Calvin Bassey and Borna Barisic sharing the duties – playing seven and six games respectively.
Dream deal
Ross Wilson pulled off a masterclass with the signing of Bassey in 2020. The Gers landed him on a pre-contract agreement in January of last year, joining the club officially in the summer for a reported £230k in compensation upon the expiry of his contract at Premier League side Leicester.
Upon his arrival at Rangers, Gerrard said of him: “He’s a strong and dynamic athlete who is very much the modern day full-back. He’s left-footed, physically powerful and enjoys driving forward and is certainly equipped to thrive in the combative nature of Scottish football.”
In the 2020/21 campaign, the youngster made eight appearances in the Premiership, including three starts, and averaged a SofaScore rating of 6.85. This was a solid debut campaign for the young full-back, but he had not kicked on enough to be a regular contender for a starting place in the side.
Leicester City U23 manager Steven Beaglehole previously hailed him as phenomenal and said he was gutted when he left the Foxes. He told The Athletic:
“I remember him playing really, really well against Bayern Munich (in a 2018-19 Premier League International Cup quarter-final).
“Early on in the season, he wasn’t pulling up any trees, but then he kicked on, and he was phenomenal, and that’s when other clubs became interested. I was gutted when he left, as he’d probably have been playing in the Europe League for us by now.”
This season, he has lived up to these Europa League ambitions, albeit for Rangers instead of Leicester. Bassey has started seven matches in the Premiership and played three times in Europe, starting once. He has averaged an impressive SofaScore rating of 6.97 in the league, proving 1.6 key passes and 1.4 tackles per game, proving himself to be good enough to start for the club on a consistent basis and a player that potential new manager Gio van Bronckhorst would surely love to have.
Therefore, Wilson pulled off a dream deal with the Nigeria international as he picked him up from Leicester on a compensation deal, a paltry £230k, and he has now established himself as a genuine first-team option.
He is still competing with Barisic for the left-back spot, but he is currently ahead of the Croatian in terms of Premiership starts this season, suggesting that he is well on his way to earning his spot in the XI and becoming a genuine force under van Bronckhorst.
AND in other news, Deadline set: Report details Rangers manager timeline that’ll surely have fans excited…
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