Former Ibrox captain Craig Moore feels sympathy for Kieran Dowell’s difficult start to life at Rangers while admitting that he ‘forgot all about’ the summer signing from Norwich City.
Football waits for no man. And, after an injury-hit spell since moving north of the border, Kieran Dowell may feel that he is at risk of being left behind, Todd Cantwell, Tom Lawrence and Sam Lammers all staking their claim in the number ten role he would no doubt have hoped to call his own by now.
Dowell, Rangers’ first signing of the summer window when joining on a free transfer from Norwich City, has not started a Scottish Premiership fixture since the opening day back in August.
His absence has been so prolonged, meanwhile, that Dowell’s presence in the squad completely slipped the mind of one-time Rangers skipper Moore.
Kieran Dowell struggling at Rangers
“You know what, and this is terrible, I forgot all about him!,” Moore tells Go Radio. “That’s a terrible thing to say. But it just goes to show you need a little bit of luck.
“Especially when you move to a new club, to hit the ground running and show them what you can do.”
Dowell has started only three games so far, two coming against Airdrie and Morton in the cup. He’s played a grand total of 14 league minutes in the last four months.
“When you pick up injuries and you’re not seen for a while, it’s a brutal, brutal industry. You can be forgotten very quickly,” Moore adds, Dowell facing an uphill battle establishing himself in Clement’s favoured XI.
“He has an opportunity to get back into the team. But, as Clement says, he comes into an area (which) is massively overloaded. There’s a lot of people in those positions.”
‘Training hard’
Ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Hearts, former Monaco, Club Brugge and Genk coach Clement insisted that Dowell is still part of his plans going forward, even if a rather lopsided squad is hardly short of attacking midfielders.
“Kieran is training hard and doing his maximum every day,” said Clement, via Rangers’ Twitter page.
“We have a lot of players. For sure, in the position that he’s playing, there’s a lot of competition. (But) everybody has a future in the club as long he’s at the club.”
