Rangers sporting director Ross Wilson has been at Ibrox since 2019 and has overseen a number of transfer windows for the Gers in that time, including Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s first last January.
He has been involved in buying and selling players to shape Rangers’ squad over the course of multiple campaigns, making some good calls and some poor errors of judgement in Glasgow.
One transfer he did play a masterclass with was the sale of midfielder Ross McCcrorie in 2021 as he cashed in on the academy product.
The versatile gem came up through the youth ranks at Ibrox before making 55 appearances for the club at the first-team level, scoring twice and assisting one goal. McCrorie was then sent away to spend time on loan at Portsmouth in England, playing 23 games and setting up five goals for the League One outfit.
At the end of his time with the English side, he joined Aberdeen on loan for the first half of the 2020/21 campaign before Wilson agreed a deal to sell him to the Dons on the 1st February 2021. Transfermarkt valued him at a respectable £1.35m upon leaving Ibrox,
He enjoyed a solid first season at Pittodrie as he made 29 appearances and averaged a strong SofaScore rating of 6.81. The 24-year-old made 2.5 tackles and interceptions per game and helped his side to keep 14 clean sheets, as he played in midfield and at centre-back.
His twin brother, Robby, dubbed him a “dafty” earlier this year and his performances in the Premiership this term have left a lot to be desired. He has averaged an underwhelming SofaScore rating of 6.70 across 25 league outings for Aberdeen.
This suggests that he has regressed over the past 18 months and is now struggling to perform to a high level on a consistent basis. McCrorie has been unable to kick on and improve on the pitch as he has faltered in the Scottish top-flight in recent months.
At the time of writing (29/03/22), Transfermarkt values the Scotsman at just £675k. This means that his value has plummeted an alarming 50% in one year at Aberdeen.
He recently turned 24 and this is the point in his career where he should be trending upwards and developing as a player as he heads towards his prime years. Instead, his value has been dropping and his displays have not been good enough on the pitch.
This shows that Wilson played a masterclass with McCrorie as he cashed in on him at the right time. Instead of wasting more time and wages on attempting to integrate him into Steven Gerrard’s team, he sold him and the player’s form since leaving proves that he made the right call.
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