31 year old Jack Butland was in some ways a surprise arrival at Ibrox during the summer transfer window, but the goalkeeper has taken full advantage at Rangers and has been very impressive in his 47 appearances so far across all competitions in the 2023/24 campaign.
Butland’s talent between the sticks was rarely in doubt, as recognised by his 9 England international caps, albeit he often played the back up role, and his stellar spell with Stoke City, but in more recent years has had fallen down the domestic pecking order and needed to reinvigorate his career – and he has undoubtedly done that wearing our shirt and anyone who picked up a betvictor bookie offer on that happening would have been very pleased with their decision.
With plenty of praise and plaudits going in his direction this year, he has more than re-established himself in the game, and with talks of a potential England recall in recognition of his performances for us, it has also inevitably led to talk that we would be willing to cash in on him this summer, to further bolster manager Philippe Clement’s summer transfer budget as he continues to rebuild the squad searching for improvement.
It is not the first time that such a claim has been made, but again this week we are seeing speculation that Rangers would accept offers of around the £15 million mark for his services at the end of the season, as the board are fully expecting to receive offers of interest from clubs south of the border who have been following his progress.
Butland has stated himself that he is perfectly happy in Glasgow, but obviously with him having no real ties to us, he has of yet completely ruled out a potential return to the Premier League if the right offer was to come in for him this summer.
Rangers definitely would not want to lose him given his impressive performance levels for us this year, as for a long time he was almost the only Michael Beale signing that was actually putting in a shift before our current gaffer started to get far more in general from the group, but our issue is we obviously cannot compete with some of the wages that would be offered by a top flight English side.
£15 million would also represent the second biggest sale fee received by Rangers in our history, just behind the £20 million for Calvin Bassey’s move to Dutch giants Ajax, and it would be a massive uplift given he was initially signed from Crystal Palace as a free agent after his contract with them came to a natural end.
With three years left on his contract, and with him clearly being trusted by Clement, we do have some sway if it comes to negotiations, and with 23 clean sheets so far to his name, we can certainly bargain on any potential price, but with Butland having the best season that he has had in a long time, we will be hoping he values enjoying himself more than a wage rise.
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