Jason Cummings’ form since leaving Ibrox shows how good a decision Rangers made in the summer.
The wacky and lovable loan star was here for the second half of last season on-loan from Nottingham Forest. It was a period where Graeme Murty was desperately trying to add a British spine to the team.
Cummings at face value looked a reasonable signing. He was proven in Scottish football, albeit mainly in the Championship, and knew where the net was. A profitable four-year spell at Hibs saw him bag 69 goals in Leith, with plenty of them against Rangers.
Even last season, he showed some of his worth early on. Some confidence-boosting Scottish Cup goals against Ayr United and a hat-trick against Falkirk had him flying. Getting game-time ahead of Alfredo Morelos was often a struggle, but Cummings seemed satisfied regardless.
In the end, however, Cummings managed only one goal in his final eight appearances for Gers before his loan spell ended. That lone-goal was against Hearts in a 2-1 league win at Ibrox.
Didn’t impress enough
During his time at Ibrox, he only made nine starts, and didn’t impress enough to entice Rangers to make a bid. This wasn’t a decision that was met with much scrutiny. Everyone acknowledged that Cummings could’ve done more during his brief spell in Glasgow.
Since then, however, Rangers have been strongly vindicated. Steven Gerrard is looking for another striker in January, and you can be certain it won’t be Cummings.
After being frozen out at Nottingham Forest, Cummings had to take the drop down to Peterborough United in League One. Managed by Steve Evans, the former Hibs man has netted just once in his last 12 matches. His only goal in that period came against Brighton under-21s.
He now hasn’t started any of the club’s last four matches, and was also involved in an embarrassing incident that saw him smash up his own flat. Cummings seemed to have a wacky side to him at Rangers, and the supporters loved it.
In truth, however, the young forward would never have been good enough to make it at Rangers. Considering it’s Gerrard’s goal to catch Celtic, Cummings is proving that he wouldn’t have had the consistency to be a progressive step towards that.
Rangers made many good decisions in the summer, and not signing Cummings was certainly one of them.