Few would argue with the assessment that Umar Sadiq flopped at Rangers.
The rangy forward arrived from Roma in July 2018 on a season-long loan but was heading back to his parent club by December [Scottish Sun].
During his stint, he made a total of four senior appearances, with just one of those coming from the start [Transfermarkt]. Bizarrely, his only 90 minutes came in the League Cup semi-final against Aberdeen, with both Alfredo Morelos and Kyle Lafferty unavailable.
After spending the second half of the season at Perugia, Sadiq returned to the Italian capital this summer hopeful of finally seeing some first-team action.
Yet, the loan spells keep coming. He’s been farmed out to Serbian giants Partizan for his sixth loan spell since 2016.
Things are going better for him there, though. He’s a regular starter and has scored twice in nine outings so far this campaign [Transfermarkt].
Excitingly for the £1.26m-rated striker [Transfermarkt], he will also have two big chances to impress going forward. Partizan are in the Europa League proper, following a qualification campaign which Sadiq himself played a big part in.
Draw hands Rangers flop big chance to impress
Their reward? Being drawn in a group alongside Man United. They face the Red Devils at home on 24th October and in Manchester on 7th November.
The forward couldn’t ask for a bigger stage to perform on than Old Trafford, and it’ll be interesting to see if he’ll show more than he did to Bears during his brief stay in Glasgow.
Elsewhere in Group L, lie AZ Alkmaar of Holland and FC Astana. Therefore, Sadiq will have multiple chances to prove there’s a player in there after all.
Rangers, of course, are in a competitive looking Group G, alongside Porto, Young Boys and Feyenoord.
