Glasgow Rangers defender David Bates will leave Ibrox at the end of the season to move to Germany.
Rangers fans have been left absolutely lived on social media after Hamburg confirmed on Twitter that they have signed David Bates on a four-year deal as his Ibrox contract ran into its final months.
Bates signed on loan during Mark Warburton’s time in charge of the Gers, and his deal was made permanent in 2017 with Pedro Caixinha handing him his first-team debut for the club.
It was under Graeme Murty that the 21-year-old really became a first-team regular and it could certainly be argued that he has possibly been Rangers’ best centre-back this season, completely outshining the likes of Bruno Alves and Russell Martin before he picked up an injury in the most recent Old Firm game.
The Scottish Sun reported in January that he was set to be offered a new contract at Ibrox as his existing deal ran into its final months. But the Bundesliga strugglers have now confirmed on Twitter that he has signed a four-year contract ahead of the summer.
With little progress seemingly being made on his extension over the last few months, there was certainly a growing amount of doubt amongst the Rangers fans regarding whether he would actually be staying put. Nevertheless, the news that he has swapped Ibrox for Hamburg has not gone down well at all.
Bates may have been some way off being the finished article, but he was clearly developing at a very good pace. And along with Ross McCrorie, he was arguably putting the other centre-backs to shame with some of his performances, so losing him has understandably been met with a reaction of disbelief and anger.
Here is what the Rangers fans made of the news of Bates’ departure…
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