BBC Scotland and their Jack Butland fantasy
Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Rangers - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - December 30, 2023 Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi scores their second goal Action Images via Reuters/Craig Brough
BBC Scotland are again banging the drum for an Ibrox transfer fantasy from Football Insider.
Every week two reporters from that site come up with the inside story from every EPL club as well as Scotland’s two biggest teams.
It seems that Pete O’Rourke is constantly taking phone calls from ‘insiders’ and senior recruitment experts’ giving the lowdown on transfer details across more than 30 clubs.
For back up they can call on the Brains Trust of Frank McAvennie and Alan Hutton to put their name to whatever opinion is put to them.
Only a complete fool would put any faith in a story from Football Insider, it often seems that that site is the go-to for the BBC Scotland Sports Desk whenever they need to pull out a good news story for their partners at Ibrox.
Rangers will accept offers of around £15million for Jack Butland this summer, sources have told Football Insider.
The 31-year-old goalkeeper has been a standout star for Philippe Clement’s side this season and has attracted interest from clubs south of the border.
As revealed by Football Insider, Butland has not ruled out a return to the Premier League this summer if an offer is made.
Rangers are concerned about losing Butland and are aware that they will not be able to compete with the wages that can be offered by a top-flight English side.
They will not deny Butland a move if an offer of around £15million is tabled – it would represent the second-biggest sale in the club’s history behind Calvin Bassey’s £20million move to Ajax.
Butland is widely reported to have taken a significant pay cut to move to Ibrox last summer, signing a four year contract, he recently turned 31.
Any worthwhile agent will have ensured that there was a get-out clause if a fee of around £4-5m was offered to get the ‘keeper back into the big money of the EPL.
At best interest was limited in Butland, it is hard to imagine that his stock has improved much on the back of a few clean sheets against Hibs and St Johnstone.
In other news it is understood that £5m price tags have been slapped on Cyriel Dessers, Sam Lammers, Rabbi Matondo and Ben Davies as Philippe Clement prepares for the second phase of his Revolution!
