Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic, shortly after Matija Frigan sealed a £5 million move to KVC Westerlo during the summer transfer window, wasted little time in airing his concerns that the one-time Rangers target had joined the wrong club at the wrong time.
“Frigan had a great (at Rijeka). But maybe he shouldn’t have gone to that club, because he is not at the top of the league,” Dalic, the 2018 World Cup runner-up, told MAX Sport at the start of September.
“Nor does he constantly play attacking football, which he needs.”
Two months on, Dalic’s concerns feel increasingly prophetic. Matija Frigan – linked with Rangers and the subject of a bid from Sunderland before moving to Belgium for a club-record fee – has scored only twice in ten Jupiler League games so far.
To make matters worse, Westerlo – second from bottom after 13 games – have won only two league matches this season, and Frigan has been absent from the squad on both of those occasions.
Rangers wanted Matija Frigan before Belgium switch
There are similarities, meanwhile, with the situation facing embattled head coach Jonas de Roeck at Westerlo and the one Mick Beale was forced to contend with before his Ibrox sacking. Bad performances underpinned by even worse business in the transfer market.
For Beale, the big-money acquisitions of Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers and co proved to be more of a hindrance than a help, and De Roeck could say the same with some of Westerlo’s own misfiring summer signings.
“But is it just the coach’s fault?” Belgian publication Voetbal Krant muse, De Roeck seemingly set for the sack. “Westerlo made many new transfers this summer. The club spent at least around 16 million euros on new players. Yet, these are not convincing.
“Matija Frigan was the most expensive of the lot. He was signed for 5.5 million euros but has only able to score twice in 10 games.”
£5 million deal going wrong
That, you may have worked out, is actually a worse goals-per-game ratio than Dessers has mustered during a difficult start to the season of his own.
Dalic, it seems, may have been right all along.
