In a transfer being reported as having the potential to break the Scottish transfer record, Nigeria international Calvin Bassey will, in the coming hours, swap the blue of Rangers for the white and red of Dutch giants Ajax.
On the face of it, there is a lot to like about this move. Not only have the Amsterdam club been a decent landing strip for Nigerian players down the years, but their emphasis on possession-based, technical football is a strong stylistic fit for Bassey and his cultured left foot.
Ostensibly, he has been brought in to replace Lisandro Martinez, who looks set to join Manchester United any minute now. Considering the Argentine was a starter, it also stands to reason that Bassey – who is similarly capable of playing both at centre-back and left-back – will play a significant number of minutes. In terms of playing time, Bassey has little to worry about.
However, for all that Ajax has a much bigger profile and continental pedigree, viewed through a conceptual lens, this transfer is a little more difficult to understand.
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What really is the idea behind this move? What was the pitch?
Fundamentally, Bassey is trading one semi-competitive two-team league for another; one side with no realistic European aspiration (bar the odd run) for another; Europe's ninth-best league for Europe's seventh-best.
How big of a leap is that? Not much of one.
There is also the fact that, while Ajax have a sterling record when it comes to youth development, Bassey has arguably already demonstrated an aptitude for a higher competitive level.
There are broadly two classes of import that the Amsterdam club have done well with: pre-peak players with no experience at all of top-flight European football (encompassing academy graduates and imports from, lately, South America – Antony, Martinez); and peak-age players who have stalled, and so need to be built back up (Sébastien Haller, Dusan Tadic).
What makes Ajax a great fit for these two categories is obvious: the Eredivisie affords a soft landing where mistakes are unlikely to be terminal, and the quality of defending is low enough that a player's confidence can be swiftly rehabilitated.
Bassey falls into neither category: he has already had his baptism in European football, and even more important he came out of it with his reputation enhanced. His performance in Rangers' Europa League run was outstanding, with the final a particular highlight only in the sense that it made the rest of Europe sit up and take notice.
Whatever benefit that could accrue from this Ajax transfer, he has already had it, and playing in the Netherlands is not going to challenge him sufficiently to further burnish his brilliant potential, especially when one considers the club's outsized dominance over the rest of the Eredivisie.
Sure, he gets to play Champions League football, and that counts for something. However, what are we talking about? Six to eight matches at the most (if he starts all the matches). Contrary to what most think, the allure of the Champions League is not development, but maximum exposure. It is in the grind of a league campaign, week-on-week, that a player truly improves.
It is telling that Mathijs de Ligt, the most talented defender out of the Netherlands in recent times, felt the need to move to Serie A to learn the art of defending despite a run to the Champions League semifinals in 2019 with Ajax. “Defending is an art form in Italy,” he told Der Wolkskrant last year.
“When I was at Ajax, the focus was far more on the individual striker, whereas now I have to look at the zone too. Don’t always chase the man with the ball, but also keep an eye on the striker who is running into space.”
Stefan de Vrij and Virgil van Dijk also both moved away from the Netherlands in order to grow. The Eredivisie is far from a finishing school for talented defenders.
It makes it difficult to be altogether enthused about this transfer. As far as the next level goes, an upper midtable Premier League club seemed the obvious play this summer or, failing that, another season in Glasgow with the Gers.
In opting to join Ajax, the best case scenario, all things considered, is that in two to three years Bassey gets a move to a league that he is already talented enough to be playing in now. It is, underneath it all, a sideways move.