The sale of Calvin Bassey to Ajax landed Rangers a healthy transfer profit

Philippe Clement is using Club Brugge as an example as to why Rangers are capable of becoming a powerhouse in the transfer market.

The Gers have made a habit of allowing players’ contracts to run down in recent times, Borna Barisic being the latest example this summer.

Rangers are capable of pulling off the odd big sale, though, with Calvin Bassey landing a club-record fee of just under £23million in July 2022.

Clement believes Rangers are capable of turning over more players for £30m-plus, as was the case for his former side Club Brugge.

The Belgian outfit this week sold striker Igor Thiago to Brentford in a deal worth around £30m [The Guardian, 14 February].

“Brugge have been doing this for a few years. We started that a little bit,” Clement said, as quoted by the Rangers Review [17 February].

“They have now sold Thiago for €37m. So, you see every year these amounts become higher and higher because you have created a reputation.

“It’s not something you can do in one year. You also need to build a reputation as a club. It’s about the level of the club.

“If you sell someone for a certain amount and he does really well somewhere else, it opens doors for the next ones.

“People say, ‘Ok, he’s coming from Rangers, that is somewhere to look’.

“That’s something that, for example, Ajax did for a long time. Then if a player was at Ajax or another team, there was a difference in value.”

Phillipe Clement already altering Rangers’ transfer approach

This is not about Rangers becoming a selling club as such, but rather becoming more sustainable over the long term.

For example, if the club can bring in £30m for a player one summer, that will then fund the next two or three transfer windows.

The Bassey sale shows the Gers are capable of negotiating large fees, but those types of deals are few and far between.

What would be handy is if the club can bring through a number of players from the academy and into the first team.

Rangers’ transfer approach has already started to change since Clement arrived, as we saw in January.

Some players unknown to the majority were signed, yet no supporters were complaining. They can see that there is a plan in place.

It just goes to show that Clement is here for the long run, and he is not happy with only focusing with on-the-field matters.