It was never going to be plain sailing when Rangers agreed a deal to take Connor Barron from Aberdeen.
But whilst a hurting Pittodrie support is one thing, a scorned Aberdeen boardroom is another.
Rangers reportedly held off competition from clubs in the English Championship and Serie A to plunge for the Scotland U21 international.
Connor Barron is a move which certainly makes homegrown sense as Rangers learn their lesson from the Lewis Ferguson fiasco.
But as Aberdeen CEO Alan Burrows tries to curry favour with his incensed support, it certainly appears like the Dons gearing up for another fruitless war they will not win.
Aberdeen CEO in Rangers transfer threat
When Rangers signed Connor Barron, they knew that they’d have to negotiate compensation with Aberdeen.
Had the midfielder moved out of Scotland, then the Dons would’ve been due around £525k in compensation for developing the 21-year-old midfielder.
But this amount has not been deemed good enough by Aberdeen and Burrows who have all but declared war on the Ibrox club as they hunt maximum compensation.
The Press & Journal even claim it’s ’nowhere near’ Aberdeen’s valuation of the player. Sheesh.
Suggesting that the midfielder is amongst the best young players in Scotland, in what certainly feels like a threat the bumbling Dons exec has promised to take the entire thing to tribunal.
“What happens in these situations is that both clubs are effectively mandated to find a solution before some sort of arbitrary body like the SPFL would step in and set that value,” said Burrows as quoted by BBC Sport.
“What happens is both clubs have to make counter proposals to each other and if they can’t agree in a middle point it then goes to the SPFL.
“That’s the part of the process that’s ongoing at the minute, if that can’t be agreed and there isn’t an agreement between the two clubs then we’re fully prepared to go to tribunal.”
Burrows then added: “It’s our job to make sure we get the best value for any player that leaves and we’ll try and do that again with Connor Barron.
“In all walks of life you would rather avoid situations where you have to go through independent tribunals.
“But if we do have to, then we will, and from that point of view we’ve had experience with these tribunals before (when Lewis Ferguson arrived from Hamilton Academical).”
Under pressure Burrows bumbles over Barron
Whilst we respect Alan Burrows is trying to get the best deal for Aberdeen, we get the feeling there’s an extra edge to the Barron situation which has discoloured any logic.
With Aberdeen fans seething Barron has moved to Rangers, and the Dons hurting they’ve lost a talented player, we suspect a fair deal was never going to be on the table at Pittodrie.
Whilst this is just a hunch, we reckon you can pretty much guarantee that unless Rangers pay over the odds for Connor Barron, this is going to tribunal.
It’s a risky move for Burrows and co who are very much looking like jilted lovers.
Getting visibly hot about the line of questioning, in our opinion the manner of the comments were borderline unprofessional.
We don’t expect the Dons to let it go – even if Barron is blue – and we predict we’re going to get a ridiculous statement from Burrows and co when the SPFL sign off on less than £1m for the midfielder.
As for any future dealings with the two-bit operation up in Aberdeen; let this hot air and these threats be a warning to the Rangers board.
