When the Ovie Ejaria loan deal collapsed there weren’t exactly murmurs of discontent amongst the Rangers fans. He had a hell of a lot of chances to prove himself in a Rangers shirt.
The general feeling was he was a technically gifted player but often lacked the physicality, drive and bottle to make it here. We just wanted him to show more.
One player who has all three of those attributes in spades is young Ross McCrorie. Perhaps traditionally lacking the technical attributes of Ejaria, he’s done superbly with more of the ball at his feet.
Over the last three or four games the youngster’s been an impressive fill in. If not setting things on fire. He’s been solid, composed and shown himself to be very capable with the ball.
McCrorie continues to prove his versatility
Even since before Ejaria left, all the talk has been of signing a solid creative number 10. That’ll never be McCrorie, but since he’s been asked to develop his game he’s not shied away from it. He was thrown into the fire against Rapid and continued his form against Hibs.
This is a boy who started his Rangers career at centre back and is now playing central midfield. I’ve no doubts Gerrard and Rangers see Ross as more of a recycling CDM, who’s neat on the ball but reads the game well. He also loves a challenge.
But so far in his Rangers career when he’s been asked to reinvent himself he has. You get the feeling that to McCrorie, it doesn’t really matter where he plays. As long as he’s playing for Rangers.
And that’s something it feels like Ovie Ejaria could never quite grasp.