Football FanCast
·14 February 2022
Football FanCast
·14 February 2022
Rangers enjoyed a busy transfer window as they managed to bring in Aaron Ramsey, Amad Diallo, Mateusz Zukowski and James Sands throughout January.
However, they failed to move on one of the players who has struggled for game time this season – Jack Simpson. The defender has been an outcast for most of the season so far and they were unable to find him a new home last month.
He joined the Gers for an undisclosed fee from AFC Bournemouth in February 2021. At the time of the deal, ex-Gers boss Steven Gerrard said this: “We are delighted to have Jack here. We have been aware of him for some time and excited to finally have him.
“Clearly it’s a bonus to have him here now earlier than initially planned. His presence makes us stronger and we are all looking forward to working with him.”
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Simpson went on to be a big flop after these strong comments as he went on to make seven appearances last term under Gerrard.
Five of these outings came in the league and he averaged a disappointing SofaScore rating of 6.62 for the Gers, losing 50% of his duels and being dribbled past 0.6 times per game. He was a lightweight at centre-back and his statistics show that he was far from good enough to be a regular starter for Rangers.
This season, he has played six games to date – three of which have come in the Premiership – and has started three matches. Gio van Bronckhorst selected Calvin Bassey ahead of him after an injury to Leon Balogun early in his reign and picked James Sands at centre-back alongside Filip Helander in the recent win over Annan Athletic in the Scottish Cup.
The Dutch head coach is seemingly not keen on the Englishman and this highlights how poor of a signing he has been, as he is the second manager – after Gerrard – to cast him aside for the majority of their time at the club. This is why he has been a dreadful signing by Wilson and it has cost the sporting director a sizeable chunk of money.
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He is reportedly on £3.1k-per-week and has been at Rangers for around 54 weeks, which means that over £167k has been spent on his wages without him making a big contribution to the side. Therefore, he has been draining Wilson’s wage budget without giving much back in return for it.
This is money that could have been spent on bringing in another player who could play regular first-team matches for the Gers. Instead, it appears to be being wasted on Simpson and that theme looks set to continue until the summer transfer window.
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