Would Giovanni van Bronckhorst still be in a job had Rangers snapped up former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain wonderkid Xavi Simons during the summer of 2022?
Well, probably not. Simons would not have solved Rangers’ set-piece issues. Their tendency to bend and break under pressure. That charitable penchant for gift-wrapping early leads and handing them over to grateful opponents.
To put it simply, Rangers had more problems than Jay-Z on a bad day during the final few months of the Van Bronckhorst era. Even a player of Simons’ outrageous technical ability would not have succeeded in solving them all.
On the other hand, it’s not often Rangers find themselves within touching distance of a player of such exhilarating potential and extraordinary talent. It feels premature to compare missing out on Simons to those famous Lionel Messi rumours from two decades ago. But there’s certainly an argument to be made that the one-time Netherlands international could have been Rangers’ most exciting, naturally-talented attacker in the modern era.
Xavi Simons is an ‘incredible’ talent
Since swapping PSG for PSV – the Eredivisie giants winning the race after Rangers held initial talks with Simons’ representatives (AS) – the Amsterdam-born teenager has 12 goals and five assists in all competitions. Not bad for a 19-year-old in his maiden season of regular first-team football. The raw statistics, however, do not come close to highlighting the extent of his impact.
Simons, as you might have guessed, was named after Barcelona’s iconic number six by his Blaugrana-mad father. But, more attack-minded and goal-orientated than Xavi ever was, reporter Valentijn Driessen sees more in common with two of the greatest Dutch talents of the 21st century.
“I think it is obvious that he will end up at the top,” Driessen tells De Telegraaf. “He has an awful lot of qualities. This is a player who has the potential to reach the level of (Arjen) Robben and (Robin) Van Persie.”
It’s not just in the Eredivisie either where Simons has stood out. He was outstanding in the Europa League group-stage victory over Arsenal in the autumn; his dazzling footwork and mesmeric movement reminiscent of the very best playmakers who donned Gunners colours since the Millenium; the balance of a Robert Pires coupled with the craft of a baby-faced Cesc Fabregas.
‘He might be better than Cody Gakpo’
“Seeing Xavi Simons play has been fantastic,” adds Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Manchester United legend-turned-PSV coach. “It’s incredible that he plays like that at that age. How strong he is mentally, how much he helps us under pressure, how important he is offensively…”
Simons, still a couple months out from his 20th birthday, is already adopting something of a leadership role at PSV; taking his game to a whole new level following the January departure of talisman Cody Gakpo. That PSV are still in with a shot at the Eredivisie title is largely down to Simons’ seemingly fearless intensity.
“A really great talent,” PSV legend Willy Van der Kerkhof tells Omroep Brabant. “He might be better than Gakpo. He is growing more and more, especially in the league games.”
Simons alone might not have saved Van Bronckhorst from the dreaded Ibrox axe. But the former Rangers boss could be forgiven for wondering how differently things would have panned out in Glasgow had Simons opted for the royal blue of Rangers rather than the red-and-white of PSV.
