Nottingham Forest Academy graduate Joe Worrall has given a positive update at his spell north of the border with Rangers in the campaign of 2018/19 and he’s obviously delighted to stay with the side and learn more under manager Steven Gerrard, given all the talk of a potential return to the City Ground during the January window.
With a recall not happening, the 22-year-old talented centre-half continues to seek game time as they battle for the Premiership title and with some outlets talking of potential £30million bids coming into Forest next summer as Rangers look to keep him permanently, our youngster is saying all the right things as quoted by the Nottingham Post.
“If they want to buy me for £30m in the summer, fantastic! If not, I’ll be happy to go back to Forest.”
The latter part of that sentence is important as even given inflation in transfer fees, I don’t believe Rangers have ever paid even half of that previously in their history, so flat out that kind of offer isn’t going to come in given the money in the Scottish game.
Whether or not Worrall is, or will be, worth that is open to debate but again, he’s balancing respect for Forest with respect for Rangers when answering questions about his future and that shows his maturity given his age.
“I wouldn’t have come here if I wasn’t going to play. I believe in my ability. I believe I should be playing at Forest but that’s not going to be happening this season. So for it to come under Steven Gerrard at Rangers is incredible and I’m thankful for the opportunity. I’m not thinking about the future. I’m loving Rangers, it’s a fantastic football club and has a massive place in my heart. Being on loan, it’s hard to say whether I want to stay. If they want to buy me for £30m in the summer, fantastic! If not, I’ll be happy to go back to Forest.”
Whetting Worrall’s Forest hopes for the future will be recent words from Martin O’Neill who also told the Nottingham Post that had he been able to bring him back, he would’ve been a regular in the second half of the Championship season.
“He is doing well there, which is good. I think that whatever arrangement was made, he ended up playing the required number of games for Rangers to keep him at the club. Otherwise he would have been here and there is a fairly decent chance he would have been playing for us. I wasn’t around at the time and I can understand how these arrangements are made. But there was no way back for us, in that aspect. He is somebody we will very much look forward to working with next season. Absolutely. Very much so.”
A harsh lesson for the boardroom as that kind of clause removing our ability to dictate what happens with our player cannot be allowed to happen again.
