Up against his former employers, Rangers’ one-time £3 million signing missed a glorious chance to open the scoring with around 10 minutes on the clock.
As the ball dropped loose in the penalty area, Sam Lammers failed to sort out his feet as he eventually scuffed an attempted finish into the ground.
Though, when presented with another chance only moments later, Lammers was in no mood to let this opportunity pass him by. Hitting a shot cleaner than a plain-white tee in a Daz advert, the former ex-Rangers misfit fizzed his volley right into the postage stamp.
After scoring 10 goals in 18 games on loan at FC Utrecht last season, Lammers’ second in three Eredivisie matches as a permanent member of the Twente squad was a brutal reminder as to why former boss Ron Jans was so determined to bring him back to the Stadion Galgenwaard.
Twente fought off competition from Utrecht before sealing a £2.8 million deal for the one-time PSV Eindhoven starlet.
Rangers sold Sam Lammers to FC Twente
Utrecht, however, were not the only club left trailing in Twente’s wake.
NEC Nijmegen were interested too, technical director Carlos Aalbers confirming that eleventh-hour hi-jacking of that Lammers deal ended in frustration.
“I think we rightly made a last-ditch effort for Sam Lammers,” Aalbers tells De Gelderlander.
NEC eventually brought in Kento Shiogai instead. The Japanese teenager, Aalbers hopes, can bring to Nijmegen many of the attributes they saw in Lammers..
“A big club tried to steal Kento from under our noses. That shows how much he was wanted. We can count ourselves lucky to have him,” the director explains.
“Kento can also make us stronger quickly with his qualities.”
As for Rangers, the £2.8 million fee they brought in for Lammers saw the Glasgow giants recoup almost every penny they sent Atalanta’s way during the summer of 2023.
At the turn of the year, Rangers looked destined to make a massive loss on a player who scored only twice in 31 games north of the border.
That loan spell at Utrecht, then, not only helped to rebuild Lammers’ reputation, it also proved to be a massive turning point in their hopes of bringing in a sizeable fee which went some way to offsetting the one of the poorest pound-for-pound deals in Rangers’ recent history.
Prolific in the Eredivsie
With 12 goals in 20 matches since returning to the Netherlands, Lammers’ is clearly a man at home in the Eredivisie.
Profligate during spells in Germany, Italy and Scotland, but prolific in Holland.
So much so that, according to one Dutch football expert, the former Eintracht Frankfurt loanee may be a leading contender for this season’s Golden Boot.
“Lammers is now playing with a stronger team,” Abdul Alrifaee told Football Oranje during the podcast’s pre-season preview, throwing the former Ibrox flop into the mix alongside AZ Alkmaar’s Troy Parrott, Feyenoord’s Santiago Gimenez, and PSV captain Luuk de Jong.
“So he could also be in that list (of potential top scorers). All the ones you mentioned, plus Lammers, I think one of them will pick up the top scorer. I cannot see any other name, really.
“I think Lammers has a better chance. He played very well with Utrecht and now plays with a stronger team that plays for the top three in the table.
“So I will go for Lammers.”
