Sheffield United defender Auston Trusty is named as the one that got away for Michael Beale and Rangers in the transfer market this summer.
According to reputable journalist Chris Jack, writing in the Rangers Review, the USA international cap is “understood” to be the club’s main centre-back target from the summer.
Having spent last season on loan at Birmingham City, Auston Trusty returned to parent club Arsenal in the summer and was extensively linked with a move to Rangers.
However the report explains that Auston Trusty became “prohibitively expensive” for Rangers and Michael Beale and the rest is history.
Auston Trusty named as Michael Beale Rangers target
Signed by Sheffield United in a reported £5m deal instead, the Auston Trusty claims back-up comments from Michael Beale and appear to suggest the Blades overpaid for the defender.
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“Without giving any inside or outs or names or anything we went a long way down the road with a left centre-back earlier in the window,” said Beale.
“To provide competition for Ben and the fact that we wanted to work with a back three this season, ideally we wanted that option.
“We were priced out, he moved to a Premier League club for more that what we were willing to pay and that was all of us.
“That wasn’t the Board not willing to pay and me thinking, you know, the price he went for was outside we though the value of that player.”
Rangers have been roundly criticised by supporters for failing to fill the left-sided centre-back void in the squad and the doomed move for Auston Trusty will add to that feeling.
Despite having the entire window to reinforce the troublesome position Rangers have failed to properly replace Filip Helander with defensive calamities continuing to cost the club.
The returning Leon Balogun – signed to replace the injured Leon King – comes back in to compete with stumbling vice-captain Connor Goldson, the error-prone John Souttar and the scarcely seen Ben Davies.
With King’s injury being better than first feared, the teenager is also back in the squad but at present miles away from the first team.