Rangers had a howler with centre-back David Bates | OneFootball

Rangers boss Gio van Bronckhorst has enjoyed an impressive first campaign at Ibrox, still in with a shot at winning three trophies going into April.

The Gers can still win the Premiership, the Europa League and the Scottish Cup as the Dutchman has ensured that his side has been competitive on all fronts this season.

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Van Bronckhorst’s predecessor Steven Gerrard left him with an excellent squad with which to work after winning the Premiership title last season, while sporting director Ross Wilson and his predecessor Mark Allen also played their part by overseeing the signings of some of the key on-field protagonists in that triumphant campaign.

However, former Ibrox sporting director Allen may look back with regret at a few of the decisions he made regarding transfers into and out of the club.

Howler

One of those may be over how he handled David Bates, who he failed to convince to commit his future to Rangers as the centre-back instead opted to find his way in Europe.

Allen had been in the job for a year by the time he was unable to stop the Light Blues academy talent from sealing a free transfer to German club Hamburg in 2018. The defender left for £0 and was valued at £225k at the time of the move, having played 28 times for the first-team after making his way through the youth ranks.

Bates played 25 matches in the 2. Bundesliga in the 2018/19 campaign, impressing sufficiently to see his market value go through the roof. In August 2019, Transfermarkt valued him at £1.8m, which meant that his value soared a whopping 700% in just one year after his exit from Glasgow, and the Gers missed out on potentially being able to sell him for multi-millions had they tied him down to a new contact.

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He has since ended up back in the Premiership with Aberdeen and is impressing in the Scottish top flight this season. Stephen Glass, the Dons’ former manager, dubbed him “proven” while he was labelled “outstanding” during his time in Germany. Indeed, his performances are certainly living up to the hype, averaging an excellent SofaScore rating of 6.96.

The £5.4k-per-week gem has won 63% of his duels and made 2.4 tackles and interceptions per game, showing that he can consistently deliver quality displays in the Premiership. This means that the Gers missed out on a potential payday and the chance to have a superb top-flight player in their squad.

At the age of 25, the 6 foot 4 man also has plenty of time to develop even further and kick on to the next level. This means that he may progress and leave Rangers truly regretting not having done more to keep him, which is why Allen had a howler with his particular transfer decision four years ago.