Rangers agreed £300K deal after West Ham offer knocked back - Ibrox Sources
Rangers agreed to sign Calvin Bassey after beating West Ham to his signature, Football Insider can reveal.
This site exclusively revealed on 6 June that the left-back, 20, had decided to quit Leicester City after rejecting a new contract and was headed to Ibrox on a free transfer.
The move was subsequently confirmed by Rangers within 24 hours as Bassey became their first and perhaps least heralded summer signing.
A recruitment source has told Football Insider how Rangers took advantage of cross-border rules to sign a player effectively worth £3million for just £300,000.
This came after West Ham had a bid for the youngster rejected earlier in the year as he ran down his Leicester deal.
Brendan Rodgers' side tried to keep hold of Bassey by offering him a long-term contract.
But the youngster wanted to develop his game by playing first-team football at a high level rather than Under-23s for a Premier League big hitter.
That ended West Ham's hopes and Rangers were able to swoop.
In a similar way to their captures of youngsters Joe Aribo, Jordan Rossiter and Joe Dodoo in previous summer windows, Rangers were able to avoid the paying the same compensation for development costs as clubs down south.
This enabled them to hand Bassey a four-year contract, just as they had with Aribo 12 months previously.
The youngster is living up to the faith paid in him with the Glasgow giants.
Steven Gerrard and his backroom staff have been hugely impressed by the summer signing both behind the scenes and in his first-team appearances.
That continued on Sunday as Bassey replaced Borna Barisic in the starting XI and delivered an assured performance in his team's 2-0 win against Livingston.