Let me start this blog post by telling you that this is just a theory I have about Jordan Rossiter’s impending transfer from Liverpool to Rangers. I don’t claim to have any insider knowledge pertaining to this deal. 

So according to many press reports both north and south of the border, Rangers are on the verge of signing highly rated young midfielder Jordan Rossiter from Liverpool.

The Scottish Championship winners will have to pay the English Premier League side just £250k in compensation, which is far less than the projected £8m it may have cost an English side to sign the nineteen year old.

Rossiter has many fans on Merseyside. Former Reds boss Brendan Rodgers really liked his style and said at the start of this campaign that he wasn’t willing to let the youngster go out on loan because he viewed Jordan as a member of his first team squad.

Rodgers would go on and give Rossiter valuable outings in the Europa League and handed him his Premier League debut against Arsenal back in August.

Liverpool legend and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has often said that he’s been ‘impressed’ with Rossiter too.

So it might seem odd that Liverpool would let the youngsters contract run down.

But a deal was supposedly on the table but terms couldn’t be agreed. Many think that Liverpool played a waiting game with Rossiter in the hope he’d lower his wage demands. The thinking behind it being that no other English side would be willing to pay the large compensation required to take his registration papers. It was a tactic that worked previously for Liverpool as left-back Brad Smith re-signed for the club after failing to find a new employer willing to pay Liverpool a considerable compensation package in the summer of 2015.

The fact that the holding midfielder has struggled all season with hamstring injuries also meant that Liverpool would believe that they held all the cards in the contract negotiations.

But obviously Rangers aren’t an English club, so the same rules don’t apply for them.

Frank McParland is head of recruitment for Rangers and he previously held a similar role for Liverpool. So he’s well connected to know what’s happening at Anfield and act swiftly to persuade Rossiter to head to Glasgow.

Rossiter is a smart holding player, who shields his defence well and can pass the ball away from danger. Don’t believe the ‘Next Steven Gerrard’ hype, that all came about because he was a scrawny, passionate, Scouser who can play in the middle of the park and had a similar hairstyle to a young Gerrard.

He’s more of a tenacious deep-laying type, similar to a Jordy Claise or a Marco Verratti. A composed midfield-marshall who can play the ball with either foot and who seems to play with his head on a constant swivel either looking for the next pass or to sniff out danger.

The England youth international certainly fits the bill in terms of a player right for the Mark Warburton project at Ibrox.

But could their be a wee bit more to this transfer than meets the eye? (spoiler this is when I go a bit Mulder and Scully).

Back in December, Rossiter was being linked with a move to Man City and more interestingly to Tottenham Hotspur.

Now we all know that Warburton enjoys a strong relationship with Spurs. He took Nathan Oduwa and Dominic Ball on loan from the Premier League runners up at the start of this season. The Gers gaffer was in London visiting Tottenham in March as he watched over their next batch of young stars.

A lot of the press have speculated that a Spurs side would take on Rangers in a closed doors friendly this month to help the Glasgow giants prepare for their Scottish Cup final date on the 21st of May.

So could it be conceivable that Spurs have said to Rangers ‘Why don’t you sign Rossiter and we will put in a first refusal clause’?

Think about it.

Spurs would buy the clause for £250k, that covers the fee Rangers will pay Liverpool. They will then allow Warburton to use Rossiter for a season or two and get the midfielder fit and ready for first team football in the Premier League and then buy him for a £5m fee.

That means they don’t pay Liverpool the £8m compensation fee.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Tottenham had done something like that either.

Back in 2012 Spurs wanted young defender Zeki Fryers from Man United but the two couldn’t agree to a compensation agreement. Belgian side Standard Liege stepped in and signed the England under-nineteen international for a nominal fee.

Six months later, Fryers would end up signing for Tottenham for around £900k, after complaining of feeling homesick.

The whole saga left then Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson furious.

Fergie said:

“I am disappointed in Tottenham, I really am. I think it has been a blatant manipulation of the situation. They tried to buy him from us at the end of last season but we couldn’t agree terms. They then took him on trial and took him to Portugal with the squad and came back and said that they couldn’t afford him. And then all of a sudden he signed for Standard Liège and at that moment in time, when I heard that, I expected him to go to Tottenham in the January window.

“I’m disappointed in Tottenham. The Premier League should look into it and I think they should stop the registration until they examine it. There will be a trail, mobile phone [records] or something. It is obvious to me [what has happened].”

So maybe just maybe London might be Jordan Roster’s final destination after a spell in Govan.

Whatever the full story, Rangers will have done extremely well to tempt a highly rated young player to leave the English Premier League to join them in the Scottish Premiership. Hopefully Jordan Rossiter can stay fit and prove that he can reach his potential in Scotland.

But just keep an eye out on where he goes after Rangers.

Posted on May 9th, 2016 by scott
Filed under: Article