Rangers star Ryan Kent is living up to his price tag and thriving under pressure at Ibrox, having scored five times in his last seven league matches.
The Gers shelled out a whopping £7.5m to bring him in on a permanent deal from Liverpool on deadline day [Sky Sports], ensuring that he’d be under major scrutiny from the minute he stepped back onto the pitch in Light Blue.
Injury struck less than halfway through his second debut for the club, but since working his way back to full fitness by November, the 23-year-old has regularly shown his quality.
His performance levels aren’t quite there every week. For example, he struggled to make an impact on a heavy Hampden pitch in the League Cup final and he was off the pace in the last Europa League group stage match against Young Boys.
However, it’s been a different story in the Scottish Premiership, where he’s been a menace for opposition defenders.
All of those five league strikes in his last seven outings have been important, too.
The scores were locked at 1-1 away at Hamilton in late November before his brace earned the Gers an away victory. In a 5-0 hammering of Hearts at Ibrox in early December, it was his goal, the second of the game, which gave his side breathing space and paved the way for the floodgates to open after the break.
His excellent early finish at Hibernian then laid the foundations for three points at what has been something of a bogey ground for Rangers in recent years, before, on the biggest stage of all – Sunday’s Old Firm – his sweet left-footed strike gave his side a deserved first-half lead.
Right now, Kent is showing why Steven Gerrard implored the board to snap him up in the dying embers of the transfer window.
Having scored just six goals whilst on loan with the club across the entirety of last season, he is taking responsibility and rising to the pressure of being Rangers’ second-most expensive signing of all time, rather than wilting under it.
