Rangers forward Abdallah Sima has been praised as ‘terrific’ by former Brighton and Hove Albion and Chelsea man Billy Reid.
Michael Beale had a clear goal with his summer recruitment – adding more quality in the final third.
Rangers ended up signing four new attackers, splashing big money on Cyriel Dessers, Danilo and Sam Lammers.
Results from the permanent signings haven’t been great so far but Rangers are seeing encouraging signs from Beale’s loan addition.
Abdallah Sima hitting form amid Billy Reid praise
Abdallah Sima arrived on loan from Brighton and Hove Albion and didn’t immediately set the world alight.
The Senegalese forward is firing now though and scored twice in Philippe Clement’s first game as Rangers boss, a 4-0 win over Hibernian.
Sima has now scored nine times in 16 games for Rangers and has found the net in each of his last three league games for Rangers.
Sima looks primed to shine under Clement and he has now been praised by a Scot who knows him very well.
Former Clyde and Hamilton Academical boss Billy Reid worked at Brighton when they signed Sima in 2021.
Reid – out of the game after leaving Chelsea alongside Graham Potter earlier this year – has now given his views Sima.
Speaking to The Scottish Sun, Reid had suggested that Sima is a ‘terrific’ player and an ‘infectious’ character around the dressing room.
Reid added that Sima can do ‘brilliant things’ and can be ‘explosive’ when he is at his best, calling on him to now find consistency at Ibrox.
“He’s a player who needs to be at his top physical level to show what he’s capable of,” said Reid. “He trained well and worked really hard in every session because he wants to do well. As a lad, he’s terrific. He was one of those boys who always came in with a smile on his face. He’s an infectious character and even when his English wasn’t great, he was always a big part of the dressing room. Now he’s comfortable speaking the language, I’m sure he is popular around Ibrox.”
“Everyone knows it can go one of two ways in this city. You can hit the ground running and the fans take to you, or you have a hard time and you’ve got to win them over. I’m delighted Abdallah is getting a run of games and scoring goals. Being in the side and playing consistently will only benefit him. Going to Rangers on loan, I wondered where he’d play. He’s a striker, but I think they use him coming in from the left, using his pace and power.”
“Some of his goals have been clinical finishes. With the pace he has, he will run away from most defenders here. And he can do explosive things. I watched the Rangers game against PSV and he had a difficult first half. You could hear the supporters getting on his back a bit.”
“But then he got a yard of space and curled one into the top bin — that’s the kind of thing he’s capable of doing. He can do brilliant things. It’s just about finding that level of consistency that is required at Rangers,” he added.
Rangers permanent move for Sima still unclear
Brighton will certainly have one eye on Sima this season, trying to gauge whether he can make an impact in the Premier League.
There is no permanent clause in Sima’s loan move, making any full-time switch in 2024 a little complicated.
Brighton paid around £6million to sign Sima and would surely want their money back for the exciting attacker.
That leaves Rangers in a tricky spot, especially having spent so much money on other attackers this summer.
Clement haș now been told what a ‘brilliant’ and ‘explosive’ attacker he has at his disposal, but just how long that is the case remains to be seen.
