Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish blames Aribo, Bassey departure for Rangers woes

Former Liverpool player and manager Kenny Dalglish has blamed Glasgow Rangers' poor campaign this season on the departure of Super Eagles duo of Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo.

Bassey and Aribo exited the camp of the Scottish giant last summer after a successful season that saw them win the Scottish Cup and also made it to the grand finale of the Europa League.

Calvin Bassey, 22, joined Dutch Eredivisie champions Ajax for a club-record fee of €23m to become Nigeria's all-time most expensive defender.

Aribo also joined Premier League side Southampton for a fee of £10m including add-ons.

The Gers have had quite a disappointing campaign so far following the exit of the two Nigerian internationals who were key to their successes last term.

Ranger could not manage a single point in the UEFA Champions League this season after losing all their group matches to Ajax, Napoli and Liverpool.

Dutch manager Gio van Bronkhorst was shown the exit following a string of poor results and was replaced by Michael Beale.

Former Liverpool and Celtic forward Sir Kenny Dalglish believes the club has failed to sign players of similar quality to Bassey and Aribo as replacements.

“Michael is on record as saying he has a really strong squad, but they need to find better players, Dalglish wrote for Sunday Post as quoted by Soccernetng.

“They didn’t do so last summer when they sold Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo. They didn’t get similar quality in.”