Craig Levein has told BBC Radio Scotland’s Sportsound Podcast (31/08/20) that it’s ‘not a mistake’ from Rangers to part ways with Ross McCrorie, who left for Aberdeen last month.
The former Hearts boss launched a passionate defence of Rangers and stated that it ‘baffles’ him that teams in Scotland keep hold of their talents, who cannot get into the first-team, because they fear they will be ‘successful’ elsewhere.
McCrorie told BBC Sport last month that he left Ibrox ‘for the good of my career’ as he now hopes to be a regular performer in Scotland’s top-flight.
During BBC Scotland’s Sportsound Podcast, a Rangers fan emailed in by stating it was a ‘mistake’ for his club to let McCrorie go and Levein issued this response.
“The first thing I would say that Rangers letting him go is not a mistake,” Levein told Sportsound. “It’s not a mistake! He wasn’t going to achieve what he might achieve at Aberdeen, at Rangers because he wasn’t going to get game time.
“This baffles me that people don’t realise that if you have got a player at your club, who was in the first-team three years ago. He has been around about it, a bit-part player here and there. Really, they are looking at it and thinking, ‘Is he good enough to play for us week in and week out at the level that we are just now?’
“And Rangers have made the decision that he’s not going to be that player. What’s really good is that they have recognised that for him to improve and for him to have a career, he needs to leave.
“For Scottish football, I wish more clubs would do that instead of keeping hold of players, in case they go somewhere else and be successful. That’s the wrong way to look at it. If you’ve got a good player, who you don’t fancy, and he’s not going to get into your team, then all you are doing is suffocating him by sticking him in the reserves. It just doesn’t work.”
Rangers’ record transfers
- Tore Andre Flo (2000)
£12.5m
- Ryan Kent (2019)
£7m
- Michael Ball (2001)
£6.5m
- Mikel Arteta (2002)
£6m
- Giovani van Bronckhorst (1998)
£5.5m
Rangers have more pressing matters to deal with in the transfer market and their decision to part ways with McCrorie was the right call because it allows him to play on a regular basis and progress.
It has been a busy summer for Steven Gerrard so far and it will only get more frantic for the Englishman, who has a lot of big decisions to make.
One of them is trying to deal with Alfredo Morelos’ future and whether the club allows him to leave amid well-documented rumours about his future.
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