Rangers’ decision not to sign Florian Kamberi on a permanent deal following his loan stint in early 2020 has been vindicated by his poor start at St Gallen.
Kamberi joined the Gers on loan from Hibernian in January and made nine appearances in all competitions prior to the football shutdown, scoring once and registering two assists.
His standout performance came as a half-time substitute away at St Johnstone in February and he showed plenty of desire across his short stint in Light Blue.
However, despite endearing himself to the supporters with his comments about securing a ‘dream’ move to Ibrox [STV], it was decided that he hadn’t done enough to earn a permanent deal.
Rangers instead brought in both Kemar Roofe and Cedric Itten to boost their forward line and Kamberi moved back to Switzerland to effectively replace Itten at St Gallen.
His results there and the contrasting performances of Roofe and Itten, show that the club made the right decision.
Kamberi has featured in only eight of his new club’s 14 Super League matches so far this season, starting just four times, while he also made a substitute appearance in a Europa League qualifying defeat to AEK Athens.
Nine games into his season, he still hasn’t scored and is also yet to notch an assist for the club that handed him a three-year deal back in August.
To date, it’s been far from the impact St Gallen would have been hoping for, particularly given that Itten banged in 19 league goals for them last season.
Rangers’ two new forwards have made much bigger contributions than Kamberi has managed on his return to Switzerland.
Itten has scored four times and produced two assists, while Roofe has 12 goals and two assists, albeit from a considerably larger amount of playing time.
A longer serving Rangers star is also back amongst the goals ahead of Saturday’s Old Firm, much to the delight of these fans.
