Ryan Kent, Lloyd Kelly, £12M and ‘that offer’….

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Ryan Kent, Lloyd Kelly, £12M and ‘that offer’….


A number of Rangers fans ran aghast as a Liverpool tabloid recently reported a £12M asking price for Ryan Kent, with outrage descending over such a preposterous price, alleging the player is only ‘worth’ £5M and shouldn’t cost any more than that – Steven Gerrard has today confirmed an offer has been put in for him for another year, but as a loan again, it intrinsically appears.

As much as we at Ibrox Noise would love to say we Rangers fans have some kind of monopoly on the moral prominence on players being ‘valued’ correctly, we only have to point out Bristol City’s Lloyd Kelly.

Well, Bournemouth’s now.

Like Ryan Kent, Kelly has been playing a level significantly below the English top flight with Bristol City, and like Ryan Kent Kelly is extremely young.

In Kelly’s case, he’s only 21, he’s got a handful of caps for England U21s, where Kent’s exploits got him many for the U20s.

How much did Bournemouth pay for this youth international? £5M? £10M?

No, £13M, a club record. And that was for a defender.

The harsh reality Rangers fans need to realise is £12M is really the going rate for a talent like Kent, even without any significant EPL experience and especially in his coveted position.

Gone are the days when that kind of fee was reserved for the world’s best players, or even great ones – now it’s a borderline standard level of fee for a half decent prospect and little more.

And Rangers supporters thinking Celtic spending £10M on Edouard and Bournemouth £13M on Kelly is somehow on a different set of rules to us are sadly misguided.

Of course, there’s a caveat – if we can get Kent for less than £12M such as a loan again that’s great – and we are not going to object to getting something of his quality for cheaper than expected or as the option of a loan.

But we’re also not going to act like entitled and spoiled children just because we’ve been quoted the going rate for that kind of player.

We are a bit disappointed, admittedly, that Liverpool aren’t seemingly doing us any favours with regards to value, but all that does is confirm is they’d want the full price in a sale – they are, it may be, however, doing us a favour giving him on loan again rather than selling to alternative suitors.

And we’d have to commend them if they do loan the attacker back to us in face of rivals potentially offering millions.

We’ll see how it runs – but just remember – English players of his age and ability are not the £3M they used to be.

Inflation!

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Either Ryan Kent comes on loan for another season or he moves on. There is no in between. Loan deals of this type are an important part of our player recruitment and we have to accept that if the loan works well like this one this is the likely outcome. Embrace the positives of his time at Ibrox.

  2. Middleton , Jones , Hastie wait 'til you see the improvement on the two latter under stevie g coaching . Things are looking good for us WATP

  3. It was playing for Rangers that got that valuation on Kent!!!! We should be getting clauses into loan contracts that we would be entitled to a percentage if they sell on for millions,, as we gave the lad world media exposure and status!!

  4. Why would Liverpool do us a favour on price. They are a business just like us. They probably don't want to loan him out. He won't get into their team and his stock is high after a good season, so they will want to cash it n.
    If they loan him out , he breaks a leg , his value will nose dive

  5. Agree with GersJimbo, it seems like all our work on the kid will only go on to benefit Liverpool and his next club. I'm almost certain they would have accepted 2million at the start of the season given his previous shortcomings on loan. We will do better setting up loan to buy deals, or making use of our scouts in cheaper markets. Probably should have done loan to buy on Barisic and Grezda (though I still have hope for them).

    Looking forward to Hastie coming in and, even though we have too many midfielders, would love to get Turnbull in too. He seems to drive the game forward whenever he plays, which is something we lack.

    Ps If Turnbull were coming through in the English championship or League 1, how much would he be worth?

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