Soccer Football - Scottish League Cup Semi Final - Rangers v Heart of Midlothian - Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - November 3, 2019 Rangers sporting director Ross Wilson before the match Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith
While the Scottish media cling desperately to the figure of £6m the truth about the Joe Aribo fee is revealed by Fabrizio Romano.
Although not 100% accurate the Italian based reporter is regarded as the biggest source of transfer information on Twitter with over nine million fans desperate for the inside track on business at their club.
The reality this morning for Ibrox fans is that their club is picking up less for Aribo than Spurs collected from Celtic for Cameron Carter-Vickers. Or less than 25% of the fee Celtic got for selling Kieran Tierney three years ago.
After Lavia, Southampton are also set to sign Joe Aribo. Been told deal is almost done for £6m plus add-ons to Rangers. No problem on player side, as was reported by @David_Ornstein. Incoming director Joe Shields, key for the move. ??? #SaintsFC
Romeo Lavia joins on £12m fee. pic.twitter.com/I33SWoOvSI
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 6, 2022
As per reports, Joe Aribo subject of a bid from Southampton. Still a bit to go on this one as Rangers standing firm on £10m valuation. Saints not the only Premier League outfit interested.
— Jonny McFarlane (@jonnyrmcfarlane) July 5, 2022
Fantasy tales of a £10m get-out clause have been debated among the gullible with the majority outraged that a star man can go so cheaply.
As they discovered with the lack of spending in January there was no £16m windfall from the sale of Natan Patterson. Once VAT and other costs are deducted from the Aribo fee, likely to be paid over three instalments, there won’t be much left to top up Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s transfer warchest.
With the Aribo figure revealed similar bids can be expected for Ryan Kent although it is unlikely that bids will be flooding in for Alfredo Morelos.
— Car*d bhoy in Dublin (@Gmck__7_3) January 4, 2022
To put this in context, Southampton are paying double the Aribo fee for a Man City U-23 player (Romeo Lavia), according to Romano. They have also paid around £15m for one of Man City’s U-23 team goalies (Gavin Bazuna). Neither has ever played in City’s first team, to my knowledge. Bazuna has never even been on the bench for them and was on loan at Portsmouth last season, I believe.
In contrast, Aribo won an albeit dubious league title at Sevco, is a full international and played (and scored) in last season’s Europa League final. So even though a lot of Sevconuts were saying last season that he was a shadow of the player he was the previous season, you have to wonder how they can’t get more for him, even going into the last year of his contract. Just another reason to laugh at them and enjoy their inevitable pain and rage when he goes for a song though – or certainly a lot less than the ludicrous sums the sensationalist headlines in SMM have led them to believe they will get for him. The banter years continue.
Remember £10 in the Ibrox accounts is actually 55p.