Calvin Bassey left out of Rangers team as transfer speculation intensifies

Calvin Bassey has been left out of the Rangers team to play Blackpool in Saturday afternoon’s pre-season friendly.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men travelled down to Lancashire to take on the Seasiders at Bloomfield, but the 22-year-old was a glaring absentee from the team sheet as Ajax and Brighton and Hove Albion fight it out to sign him.

Both clubs have lodged bids for Bassey, with Ajax understood to be prepared to pay the £20million-plus required to tempt Rangers into accepting as the Dutch club are on the cusp of selling their own defender Lisandro Martinez to Manchester United.

Van Bronckhorst named a strong team for the match against Blackpool, with new striker Antonio Colak leading the line and fellow signings John Souttar, Rabbi Matondo and Tom Lawrence on the subs bench.

Bassey’s omission is another indicator that a move away from Ibrox is getting close, with the Rangers hierarchy resigned to the fact that the Nigerian internationalist is likely to depart in the coming days.

Rangers have already sold Joe Aribo this summer, the midfielder joining Southampton.