One of the trademarks of the Philippe Clement era at Rangers has been the rapid improvement of players who, until the former Monaco boss replaced Mick Beale in mid-October, looked doomed to failure on the blue side of Glasgow.
Who really expected Ridvan Yilmaz to oust Borna Barisic as the club’s first-choice left-back? John Lundstram, in the words of a few Rangers legends, looked ‘lost’ under Beale but has been ‘exceptional’ since.
Cyriel Dessers, meanwhile, scored only three goals before Clement’s arrival but has hit the net 14 times with the towering Belgian in the dugout. Even Chris Sutton, who will be very much in the Celtic camp when Dessers and co welcome the reigning Scottish Premiership champions in Sunday’s crunch Old Firm clash, has to admit that Dessers has gone from a ‘dud’ to, if not deadly, then certainly dangerous.
Is Cyriel Dessers really good enough for Rangers?
“There’s no question Rangers are making progress under Clement,” Sutton told the Daily Record in February.
“Clement has got the senior players doing the business. (He is also) bringing something out in boys that were tagged as not up to it. Cyriel Dessers is case in point. The Nigerian was being hounded as an out-and-out dud in the first weeks of the season. Now he’s scoring goals regularly.
“Important goals, into the bargain.”
Andy Walker, another former Celtic forward, is not quite so effusive in his praise of the Belgium-born Nigeria international, however.
In fact, he feels that – regardless of the outcome of Sunday’s Glasgow derby and the season as a whole – Rangers will be looking to upgrade on a forward who remains, even at his best, a little hit-and-miss.
“I think the one thing that Rangers lack is a real recognised goalscorer,” Walker tells talkSPORT (5 April, 12.20pm), feeling that those in blue have never really replaced the once-prolific Alfredo Morelos.
“Dessers plays, and I am sure he will play on Sunday, but he misses a lot of chances. I know he’s got a number of goals this season. But Rangers, I think, will be targeting a number nine whether they win the title or not.”
Rangers linked with a number of strikers
Dessers, it must be said, has five more goals already than Morelos managed in his final season at Ibrox. In fact, the £4.5 million former Feyenoord frontman is just two goals away from beating Morelos’ tally from four of the Colombian’s six campaigns in green-and-white.
Rangers have, however, been linked with a number of strikers since the turn of the year. There is reportedly interest in two of the Premiership’s most coveted attackers, Aberdeen’s Bojan Miovski and Hearts’ Lawrence Shankland.
