Only 18 months ago new Rangers signing Todd Cantwell had a legitimate £50M market value.

Sky Sports’ Dharmesh Sheth explains:

This window was summer 2021, and he was being mooted as a replacement for Jack Grealish at Villa after the England star switched to Man City for a whopping £100M.

So, there is absolutely no lie to say Rangers have a player who was once going into the serious directions of major value. As history saw it, that transfer didn’t happen, and Cantwell unfortunately, stuck at Norwich (with all due respect), lost direction.

In short, he thought he was getting a big money move to a solid Premier League side, but it didn’t happen and he lost some focus.

The potential that saw the value of £50M started to disappear and go into cold storage, and 18 months later both parties knew this current path was no longer working and he needed to move on.

Cantwell, back then, was still only 23, 18 months ago, and we now have the player who was expected to be so much more, and was capable of doing so.

There is no question big hype over a big move when at a small team will get a player excited, but for it to fall through, Glen Kamara-style when he thought he was getting a big league over the SPL in the form of Nice, sees the player down tools and lose passion for their current team.

That happened to Cantwell, but we have a real, real talent here. We have a player who is absolutely capable of going into world class territory (or whatever that even means these days) but fell short when he had the chance 18 months ago because he didn’t get the big move.

He’s got a much much bigger club now, a mile bigger than Villa would have been, but of course we’re not in the Promised Land of the Premier League. Cantwell will hope he will impress enough over the next two years that he might get a second crack down there, but for at least 24 months we have a player absolutely aching to prove himself.

A player once worth £50M who’s ready to bust a gut and prove himself.

We look forward to it.