Former Real Madrid and Netherlands star Rafael van der Vaart reckons £19 million Ajax defender Calvin Bassey was never going to succeed at the Amsterdam club...because he had only played for Rangers.
The Nigerian international was the highest casualty of interim manager John Heitinga's first selection at the weekend following the dismissal of Alfred Schreuder last week, who had swooped for the ex-Ibrox star.
Bassey was only on the bench as Ajax romped to a 4-1 win against Excelsior, which was incredibly their first victory in the Eredivisie since October.
And 109-times capped former Spurs and Hamburg ace van der Vaart was the latest to join the growing band of criticism for Bassey, who has struggled in Dutch football since his move.
READ MORE: Rangers agree Nicolas Raskin deal as Michael Beale lands Standard star
He said: "How is someone who played for Glasgow Rangers like Calvin Bassey going to be able to lead the defence at Ajax?
"Where was the Ajax youth system? Was there no one there better than him? Because if there isn't then you have a major problem.
"Sometimes it's better if you don't have any money because then you don't do crazy things. Then you wait for the right moment and occasionally take a chance.
"Instead they spent 23 million Euros on Bassey. Alfred Schreuder made too many big mistakes."
The Insider newsletter is the latest move by the team at the Rangers Review to bring content directly to you. We already have accounts on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Tik Tok and Instagram but we will also send exclusive bespoke opinion pieces every day at 5pm direct to your email. Not only will you receive this piece from one of our team of Joshua Barrie, Derek Clark or Jonny McFarlane but you will also get our list of the best content published in the last 24 hours. It's a handy way to keep abreast of what's going on amid all the noise surrounding Scotland's most successful club. You can sign up here in five seconds with just an email address.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel