Darius Olaru is the perfect example of where Rangers recruitment could have turned over the last couple of seasons.
Players like the Romanian international have been mentioned as possible targets in the past only for budget signings like Kieran Dowell to have been made instead.
To rub salt into the wounds, Darius Olaru is showing the sort of form that puts Rangers entire midfield to shame.
Michael Beale is struggling to get his strikers scoring goals, never mind his midfielders but the numbers speak for themselves.
Darius Olaru the one that got away for Rangers
Darius Olaru has six goals and two assists in 10 league games for Steaua Bucharest.
Between Todd Cantwell, Nico Raskin, Jose Cifuentes, Kieran Dowell, John Lundstram and Ryan Jack, there is a less-than-inspiring one goal, total, in all competitions.
Rangers title winning season saw players like Scott Arfield and Joe Aribo make double figures for goals and assists, give or take, and it is an area where the Gers boss has to be braver.
Cifuentes and Cantwell, in particular, arrived having been used as attacking midfielders at their previous clubs but Beale has yet to take the handbrake off that he promised when he first arrived.
There is no point signing players like this and playing them out of position or setting the team up in a way that doesn’t match their skill set.
Darius Olaru, valued at £5m, has been linked with a move to Rangers on more than one occasion but you get the feeling that, if he had been signed, we’d be playing him in a double pivot protecting the defence rather than letting him attack the opposition goal.
The players need to improve their consistency, however, Beale has to release ones like Cifuentes to get the sort of numbers that Olaru is producing too.
