Of the eight players brought in on a permanent basis during Mick Beale’s one and only summer in charge of Rangers, how many can realistically be considered a success?
Jack Butland and Cyriel Dessers certainly come the closest.
While both have had their critics, Butland was Rangers’ penalty shoot-out hero against Fenerbahce in the Europa League last-16 a week ago. The goalkeeper has made a few high profile blunders – particularly recently – but it’s fair to say Butland has saved Rangers for more often than he’s cost them.
No one sums up Cyriel Dessers better than Barry Ferguson, meanwhile. Yet, the striker ‘frustrates’. Yes, he has a tendency to make the beautiful look straightforward and the easy look impossible. But two seasons as a Rangers player, with 22 goals in each, what he lacks in consistency he arguably makes up for with sheer weight of numbers.
As for Beale’s other acquisitions, Dujon Sterling and Danilo have been in and out due to injury. Kieran Dowell and Jose Cifuentes are currently out on loan and appear to have no future at Ibrox. Leon Balogun has been a useful squad player.
But in the case of Sam Lammers, its fair to say there are few redeeming factors. Especially when you consider that a striker Rangers could have signed instead for just £3.2 million that summer is currently going band for band with Romelu Lukaku in the Serie A goalscoring charts.
- READ MORE: Rangers Transfer History 2016-Present
Nikola Krstovic could have joined Rangers rather than Lecce
In a month in which Sam Lammers was jeered off by his own FC Twente supporters – and we are using the word supporters lightly – Nikola Krstovic stunned the AC Milan supporters into a hushed silence.
Relegation-threatened Lecce roared into a 2-0 lead against the Rossoneri, and a man who reportedly found himself on Rangers’ radar back in 2023 was responsible for both goals.
Rangers scouted Nikola Krstovic two years ago, when he was in the midst of a 26-goal season for Slovakian outfit Dunajska Streda. The Montenegro international would move to Italy with Lecce instead that summer, as Rangers invested over £10 million on the attacking trio of Dessers, Danilo and Lammers.
Krstovic arrived in Serie A hoping to emulate his fellow Montenegrin Mirko Vucinic; The former Roma and Juventus marksman who really made his name with the Giallorossi. Now, thanks to his stunning Milan brace and another emphatic finish the following weekend against Genoa, Krstovic has been immortalised alongside Vucinic in the Lecce history books.
By reaching 10 Serie A goals this season – the same as Lukaku has in Napoli colours – Krstovic is now one of only three foreign players to hit double figures for Lecce in a single league campaign since the 2004/05 season.
“Nikola is having a great championship,” beams Stefano Trinchera, Lecce’s sporting director. “He is a boy who has completed himself in recent times. He has improved a lot. He has become aware of his potential and he is an added value for our team.”
Krstovic shares Cyriel Dessers’ inconsistency in front of goal
Krstovic really didn’t deserve to be on the losing side against AC Milan. Not after beating the brilliant Mike Maignan twice in supreme style. His first was a right-footed rocket from distance. His second, a cool swept finish into the corner.
“We did very well against Milan, then we were naive about the three goals conceded,” Trinchera adds, the Rossoneri fighting back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2.
“We hope that Krstovic and the others will provide that consistency.”
Like with Dessers at Rangers, consistency has been an issue for Krstovic so far. He went nine games without a goal before Christmas, and continues to score in purple-patch bunches rather than by spreading his contributions evenly across a campaign.
Yet, like Cyriel Dessers at Rangers, the reality is dawning that Lecce would be in a much worse position without him.
