The summer of 2022 for Rangers fans was meant to herald a new dawn. Having just won the Europa League, Rangers were now to be in the Champions League and all was going to be open doors and opportunity. As we know, alas, it did not transpire that way and Rangers wave goodbye to £4.5M. The summer 2022 transfer window was an absolute shambles in how much Rangers spent and what they spent it on.
Ross Wilson’s disastrous window
Ross Wilson, of course, back in those days, was the sporting director. Giovanni van Bronckhorst was manager at that point and Wilson basically had full control over the signatures. Giovanni would sign off on them, but at the end of the day it was Wilson who was essentially responsible for pretty much every addition who came in during the summer of 2022.
One such infamous player was Ben Davies.
He arrived for a fortune of £4.5M, with Rangers having sold Calvin Bassey for £21M to Ajax. Davies was earmarked as the natural replacement. Of course, which Ibrox Noise knew immediately was absolute and utter nonsense given Davies’ own resume.
Davies was a Championship slot player who had been signed as a complete panic addition by Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool in the face of a ton of injuries. Very little research had gone into acquiring him and to Liverpool he went.
Liverpool’s panic signing
They could not quite believe what they had ended up with when they realised how poor he was. He never made a single first team appearance. He was never on the bench, certainly not as a sub and sure as heck not as a starter.
Davies was shipped out on loan as often as they could to try to move him on. This is where Rangers came in.
For inexplicable reasons, Ross Wilson felt the need to give Liverpool £4.5M for Davies. This was supposedly to replace Bassey, a left sided defender, but of course, as we all know, that could not have gone more pear shaped if it tried.
Davies and Leon King ended up being the defence against Liverpool in the Champions League. They were completely and roundly slaughtered. Davies was completely and utterly out of his depth and so was King.
A catastrophic waste of money
The issue of Davies and his £4.5M fee is the topic today because, as we all know, he will be freed this summer. What a disastrous use that sees Rangers wave goodbye to £4.5M. That is not exactly pennies these days, certainly not in the sense of Rangers and Scottish football.
Rangers have lost that cash on a diabolical signing in the form of the former Preston defender. He is an astonishing example of panic signing and hoping and praying that you are going to find a gem in the EFL.
Of course, technically he was a Liverpool player, but he really does not qualify as one in any sense, shape, or form. As we saw, it was a panic signing there when Liverpool had a defensive crisis. When they realised how poor he was, he still could not get in.
No matter what the situation in Liverpool was in terms of defensive crisis, they were not going to select Ben Davies, that was for sure.
Rangers finally move on
He will move on to pastures new this summer. He has been an absolutely atrocious signing and one of the most exorbitant examples of misuse of Rangers funds by past regimes.
Wilson, for his part, has gone away scot free. He moved on to pastures new at Nottingham Forest and we are not even that sure what he does today, if he is still even there. In fact, we are well aware he moved on from there and got an even better gig.
Somehow, the most incompetent people get all the best jobs. It is pretty astonishing how this stuff happens.
Ben Davies is an example of some of the damage that was done that window and believe us, there was plenty more. We have to say we will be very glad when Ben Davies finally departs officially.