Everton’s bid for Rangers defender Nathan Patterson prompted Ibrox boss Steven Gerrard to brand it a ‘joke’ but the paltry £5million offered by the Premier League side only goes to show the disdain English clubs hold for Scottish football.
Rangers dismissed the offer out of hand with Gers fans looking for something closer to £20million to lure the teen away from Ibrox this summer.
The Gers are quite right to laugh off Everton’s bid for Patterson and when you look at some of the ridiculous sums being thrown around south of the border, it’s easy to see why.
Had Patterson been an English teenager who had represented his country at a major finals and played in the last 16 of the Europa League, Everton would have thought nothing of spending four or five times what they offered Rangers.
What price would someone like Reece James go for today or Bukayo Saka?
One thing is for certain, neither would see the bidding start as low as £5million.
The same attitude feeds into fans and players in England when they look at Scottish football, experienced flops like Joey Barton and Shane Duffy thought all they had to do was show up and the rest would take care of itself but when they actually arrived in Scotland, they quickly returned to England with their tail between their legs.
Patterson is going to have a massive future ahead of him – whether at Rangers or elsewhere – but if anyone truly wants to lure him away from Ibrox they have to stop treating clubs like Rangers with contempt in the transfer market.
What makes it even more laughable is that Everton are looking for a reported £5million for Jonjoe Kenny as he enters the final year of his contract.
The Everton man spent the last six months of last season in Scotland and looked every inch the run-of-the-mill full-back he is, yet Everton put the same value on him as Patterson?
Rafa Benitez might be friends with Steven Gerrard from their time on the other side of Stanley Park together but the Everton boss is surely looking for some kind of mates rates to sign Patterson.
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