Offers over £20m as on-message Ibrox partner spins Calvin Bassey interest

Excitement is mounting on social media as the Ibrox PR machine attempts to generate interest in Calvin Bassey. 

Attempts to create a bidding war centred around Aston Villa in May failed to get off the ground with Steven Gerrard having no interest in signing the former Leicester City starlet. 

A similar process was attempted for Joe Aribo but the £6m fee from Southampton together with the complete lack of interest in Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos has forced the transfer cycle to return to Bassey. 

TalkSPORT set the ball rolling on the Bassey tale in the full knowledge that the loyal messengers would pick it up and give it a few days coverage 

The 100% on message Newsquest site reports: 

The Rangers Review understands that Rangers will throw out any bids not in excess of £20m for a player that cost just a £300k cross-border fee two summers ago. Sources at the club have long maintained that any package for the player would have to match the £25m Arsenal paid to take Kieran Tierney from Celtic in 2019. That would exceed the club record fee Everton paid for Nathan Patterson in January. 

Bassey was signed by Steven Gerrard and initially served as an understudy to left-back Borna Barisic.  However, van Bronckhorst converted the ex-Leicester player into a centre-back after replacing Gerrard last year, maximising his strong physical credentials as an aggressive man-marker.  He starred in Rangers’ Europa League Final penalty shoot-out defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt and was named in the team of the competition. 

Mention of Celtic transfer fees seems to be compulsory for on-message websites. 

Bassey is halfway through his four year contract, his monthly salary is believed to be less than the weekly pay of John Lundstram and Kemar Roofe, the highest earners at the club. 

In less than three weeks the Ibrox club face a Champions League qualifier against a club better than Malmo.