When Rangers came calling for his captain during the summer transfer window, the technical director must have wondered if he could get away with pretending his phone had broken.
Unfortunately for Arnond Bruggink, he was not the only member of the FC Twente backroom staff contacted by Rangers when the Scottish Premiership giants honed in on Robin Propper.
Philippe Clement’s side eventually secured a £1.5 million deal at the start of August, the Ibrox boss feeling he had pulled off a bargain for a defender who – thanks to an agreement made with the Twente bosses back in 2023 – was allowed to leave on the cheap.
Technical director Bruggink knows all too well that the finest talents in the Eredivisie tend to say their goodbyes at some point or another.
But, determined as he was to keep Propper at the Stadion Galgenwaard, Bruggink turned his phone on silent and hoped that Rangers would simply give up.
That was, however, until the Glaswegians made contact with fellow Twente boss Jan Streuer too, ensuring that Bruggink could ignore the inevitable no longer.
Robin Propper had ‘doubts’ about leaving Twente for Rangers
“I was standing in the back garden on Sunday evening. Robin Propper’s agent called me at a quarter to ten in the evening. Agents call very often, but not on Sunday evening at a quarter to ten!,” Bruggink recalls, speaking to the Oostribune podcast.
“I didn’t answer and thought, I’ll pretend I’m not there. But they call Jan too.”
Bruggink claims that Propper did not simply jump at the opportunity when Rangers made their interest known.
After captaining Twente to third place in the Eredivisie – securing a place in the Champions League qualifiers – Propper had some ‘doubts’ about leaving for Britain.
“I sat with Robin a lot here, because Robin also had doubts in the beginning. (He said) ‘We finally have Europe, which is what I really want with FC Twente’,” Bruggink adds.
“But, in the end, he chose to go.
“You always take it into account (that players could leave). But at that moment, on July 28, I didn’t really take it into account anymore, because you hope that it will die down somewhere.
“But in your head you always take into account that the players can leave, and you have to try to anticipate that.”
A mixed start for £1.5 million Dutchman
Twente would eventually lose to Red Bull Salzburg in their Champions League qualifiers, Rangers suffering the same fate against Dynamo Kyiv thanks largely to that ludicrous Jefte red card.
Both clubs will now take part in the Europa League instead, although they managed to avoid themselves in that new-look draw.
Propper, meanwhile, has had a mixed start to life in Scotland. An own goal on his debut was hardly befitting of Virgil van Dijk or Stefan de Vrij – two Dutch stars Propper had been likened to – and he was also part of the Rangers backline filleted by Celtic at Parkhead.
But once he gets used to the speed and the physicality of the Scottish game, while putting those niggling injury issues behind him, Clement will be hoping that the former Heracles ace can emerge as a leader in a relatively youthful squad.
“Normally, for the amount of money we pay now for Propper, you can never get him,” Clement said in August, via the club’s official YouTube channel. “(The Dutchman arrives so cheap) because he had a situation last year when the club stopped him from going and he had a clause in his contract.
“He is going to bring leadership. He is going to bring coaching qualities on the pitch and a good example to young players of how to be professional.
“He has really good qualities on the ball also, so he is going to help us to play a good kind of football.
“Having somebody like him is gold for players like (teenager) Clinton Nsiala. It’s why we also resigned Leon Balogun. It’s not only to play his games or be part on the pitch but also off it. It’s important to create a top sport culture where everyone is on their toes every day, with the ambition to become better.”
