Say what you want about Nils Koppen and Rangers’ recruitment drive over the last few windows, one department they did get write is the centre forward one.
While Danilo’s Rangers career remains something of a fractured existence – injury after niggling injury stalling his progress again and again – surely it’s time to scale back the criticism and appreciate Cyriel Dessers for what he is.
Barry Ferguson summed up it best when discussing Dessers in the aftermath of that 4-2 comeback win over Kilmarnock in midweek.
Yes, he ‘frustrates’. Yes, he misses chances, misplaces passes and sometimes struggles to do even the most basic of tasks. But as Dessers followed up his close-range header with a rasping first-time volley – taking his tally to 20 for the season in the process – a man who averages a goal every 1.6 Premiership starts took one giant step towards silencing his doubters for good.
And then there’s Hamza Igamane. While the Moroccan’s scoring drought goes on, 13 goals is a more than impressive return for a youngster bought for just £1.7 million and playing outside of North Africa for the very first time.
Together, Dessers and Igamane combined cost narrowly less than the fee Aberdeen received when selling Bojan Miovski to Girona last summer.
A £7 million acquisition for last season’s La Liga surprise packages, if Rangers’ two centre-forwards have come to represent genuine value for money, the same cannot be said of another striker who found himself on the Ibrox wishlist.
Former Rangers target Bojan Miovski has struggled in Spain
The Scottish Sun reported in December 2023 that Bojan Miovski was a Rangers target before joining Girona.
A reliable finder of the net during his time in Scotland, Philippe Clement praised the Macedonia international after he opened the scoring at Ibrox a few months later while those Ibrox links would rumble on throughout the following summer.
Twenty Girona appearances and a grand total of four goals later, all involved may now be wondering if Catalonia really was the right step for a striker who’s career has ground to a frustrating halt.
In 12 La Liga outings, Miovski has found the net only twice. and both of those came in November’s 4-1 thrashing of Espanyol.
Miovski has ‘stagnated’ since swapping Aberdeen for Girona
Considering just how important Artem Dovbyk was to Girona’s stunning Champions League charge last term – he won La Liga’s Golden Boot with 24 goals – it was always likely that the striker’s eventual departure to Roma would create a hole difficult to fill.
Yet, as Spanish publication Sport put it, while a dip was anticipated, the extent of it has come as a rather unwelcome surprise.
“[Head coach] Michel knew that replacing Dovbyk was going to be impossible, Sport write. “But he did not expect such a sharp drop in the team’s performance from one season to the next.
“The arrivals of Miovski and Abel Ruiz were exciting, but so far they have stagnated in front of goal and have not managed to meet the expectations placed on them.”
The same, fortunately, cannot be said of those currently leading the line at Rangers.
