Ex-Birmingham City, Derby and Stoke star branded 'irreplaceable' as £30m price tag slapped on

Rangers manager Phillipe Clement says that Jack Butland is irreplaceable - and has placed a sizeable transfer fee on the goalkeeper.

The 31-year-old joined Rangers last summer after three seasons at Crystal Palace. He spent the final season of his contract Palace on loan at Manchester United, but failed to make a senior appearance for the Red Devils.

Butland was ever present for the Gers in the Scottish Premiership last season and kept 32 clean sheets in the 38 league games he played in. Despite winning the Golden Glove last season, Celtic finished three points ahead of Rangers, though he didn't finish his first season empty handed as he won the Scottish League Cup.

As a result of his performances, he was spoken about as a possible call-up for England's EURO 2024 squad, but he missed out. Jordan Pickford remained the first choice under Gareth Southgate, and he was accompanied by Dean Henderson and Aaron Ramsdale.

Addressing the reported interested in Butland to the Daily Record, Gers boss Clement said: "I think there is only one player that is irreplaceable at the moment that I don’t think a team will pay the money that he is worth, for sure, and that is Jack Butland.

"Everybody knows what I think about that. Everybody who is here is part of my plans. It is like that.

“Otherwise they would not be here. That is the thing with fans, I think it changed with having the PlayStation or Football Manager and you can say ‘this player I don’t like he needs to be out’. It doesn’t work that way. These guys have contracts.”

He said: “If somebody comes with £30m or £40m, you can replace him for that money. Every player falls into that category. We need money to replace him. If it is a good amount you can replace him and do something else. We will see.”

Butland began his career at Birmingham City, and had two separate loan spells at Cheltenham Town. He made 46 appearances for Blues in the 2012/13 season, and was sold midway through that campaign to Stoke City for a reported £3.5m, but was allowed to conclude the campaign before joining in the summer.

The shot-stopper spent eight years at Stoke, and appeared 169 times for the Potters, but had loan spells at Barnsley, Leeds United and Derby County. He later moved on to Crystal Palace, and was mainly their back-up goalkeeper, before getting himself back in to the role as first-choice at Rangers.