Barry Ferguson just doesn’t get it when it comes to player valuations, does he? It kills him that Celtic will make more on Engels than Ibrox will on Raskin…

Barry Ferguson is out in the Record this morning doing his sums.

And you’ll never guess what he’s worked out.

Nico Raskin is better than Arne Engels.

Stop the bus.

Here’s the great man himself, on GO Radio:

If you look at the squad, the glaring one is Nico Raskin. He had a really good World Cup for Belgium. Is he going to stay or going to go? You’d be looking at between £15-20million for Nico Raskin.

You are not selling him for £10million. He’s a Belgium international and I know he never started the first game but I thought he was probably Belgium’s best player at the World Cup.

He’s worth at least that (£20million). If Arne Engels is going for more than £25million, come on. Nico is better than Arne Engels.

Come on, Barry.

Come on indeed.

Here’s the bit that Barry Ferguson has never once managed to grasp – a player is worth exactly what somebody is willing to pay for him, and not a penny more.

He isn’t worth what a pundit thinks he’s worth.

Nor what a supporter thinks he’s worth.

Nor what a former captain of the dead club thinks he’s worth on a Friday morning radio slot.

The market sets the price.

That’s it, that’s the whole thing.

So let’s do what Barry couldn’t be bothered doing, and look at the actual evidence.

Arne Engels was the subject of a £25 million bid in January.

A real bid, with real money attached to it, from a real club.

Celtic turned it down.

And now West Ham United are all over him, which is precisely why the figure of £25 million is being printed in the papers this week and not plucked out of thin air.

Now, Nicolas Raskin.

Villarreal are ‘keeping tabs on him’.

Real Betis are ‘monitoring the situation’.

Do you see the difference??

One player has had cash physically put on the table for him and it was rejected.

The other one has had a couple of La Liga clubs mentioned beside his name in a newspaper.

One of those is a valuation, and the other one is a rumour with a price tag stapled to it.

But hey, what do I know?

Let’s be honest here, we’ve been down this exact road before.

Back in April, Charlie Adam was on the very same beat, telling anybody who’d listen that Raskin would sell for £20 million because of the World Cup, and the title, and the Champions League money.

Well, the World Cup has now been and gone.

Barry himself admits Raskin never even started Belgium’s first game.

But he was ‘probably Belgium’s best player’ at the tournament.

Probably.

That’s the entire case for the extra £5 million, right there.

Probably.

Meanwhile, Raskin’s title win didn’t happen either, because we won it on the last day, and the Champions League money didn’t happen because they aren’t in it.

Every single pillar Adam built that £20 million on has collapsed.

And here comes Barry four months later to prop the number back up with a ‘probably’.

And where exactly was this £20 million Belgian superstar on Thursday night when his side were getting turned over 2-1 at home by Jagiellonia Bialystok?

On the bench.

He came on as a second half substitute.

In a European tie their entire season now hinges on.

Their best asset, their glaring one, the man Barry wants £20 million for, and Staunch Del didn’t fancy him from the start.

I’d be asking Del about that one before I’d be asking the market for £20 million.

Because there’s something else Barry has skated right past here.

Raskin is 25 and under contract until the summer of 2028.

That’s the one genuine card the Ibrox side hold, and instead of playing it, their own former captain is out in public telling every sporting director in Europe what he’d accept.

Amateurs.

The truth of it is that this has absolutely nothing to do with Nico Raskin, and everything to do with the fact that a Celtic player is about to fetch more than an Ibrox player.

That’s what’s eating him.

Look, I’ll happily give credit where credit is due – Raskin is a good player, and I said so back in April.

But not as good as Engels.

But ‘good player’ and ‘£20 million player’ are two very different things, and only one of them can be proven by a bank transfer.

There is no bid.

There has never been a bid.

Zilch. Zero. Nada.

Whereas we already binned one for £25 million and are being asked for more this time around.

So no, Barry, we’re not going to accept your valuation just because it stings.

If a Premier League club rocks up at Ibrox with £20 million for Nicolas Raskin, I will be the very first man in the queue to say you called it.

I won’t hold my breath, mind you.

Barry Ferguson (EBT £2.5 million).

I rest my case…

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