The ‘injury-prone’ tag can be a difficult one to shake.
Ianis Hagi is finding that out the hard way, interest seemingly in short supply for a player who’s reputation has never really recovered since suffering a serious knee issue two-and-a-half years ago.
And when Rangers confirmed the signing of Vaclav Cerny last week, there may have been some sections of the Ibrox fanbase who’s excitement was tempered by the fact the Wolfsburg loanee had spent a long spell on the sidelines himself with an ACL tear of his own.
Cerny missed a year of action between 2017 and 2018. He spent a similar spell on the sidelines back in 2021, too.
But Ron Jans, who worked with the winger over in the Eredivisie with FC Twente, insists that a fit and firing Cerny is talented enough to justify the risk Rangers have taken bringing in a player with ‘two bad injuries’ in his career already.
Rangers sign Vaclav Cerny from Wolfsburg
“Vaclav is one of my favourites. I loved working with him,” Jans tells The Herald of a 26-year-old Czech Republic international who graduated from the fabled Ajax academy.
“As a young kid, he was seen as one of the biggest talents in Europe. Vaclav had real speed. His left foot is incredible and he works really hard as a player. He’s a real high-intensity player in transition and when pressing.
“Sometimes, he wants things to happen too quickly and needs to be relaxed in his head. But we all love watching football players who are doing something special.”
Rangers have struggled to find a player capable of nailing down the right-wing spot in recent years.
Cerny, however, can do just that. Cutting in onto his left foot to often devastating effect, the former Twente talisman established himself as one of the most feared forwards in the Netherlands before making that switch to Wolfsburg.
He scored 15 goals and set up a further 13 in 2022/23 alone, with Jans feeling that a difficult spell in Germany was down to Wolfsburg’s tactics more than anything else.
“For me, when you don’t play with wingers, I think it is a waste of football. It’s difficult sometimes when you see a 3-5-2 with wing-backs, because most real wingers are not defensively suited to that system. That was a problem for Vaclav at Wolfsburg,” explains Jans, who now works at FC Utrecht and had hoped to land Sam Lammers before his move to Twente.
“Sometimes, when he is not playing he can make things difficult for himself because he wants to fight back and work hard and his body language can be disappointed. As a coach he is a really great guy to work with though and he’s more mature now.
“Vaclav just needs two things: confidence and a good relationship with the coach and the crowd. I hear the supporters in Glasgow are great, so that is something.”
Interestingly, Cerny already has a rather mouthwatering understanding with a current member of Philippe Clement’s Rangers roster.
Cerny struck up a fearsome partnership with Danilo during the 2020/21 campaign in Enschede. Rangers’ current number nine ended that season as Twente’s top scorer on 17 goals.
“Danilo and Vaclav played together and had a great fit. The chemistry was really good,” Jans explains, comments which should excite Rangers fans hoping for a repeat scenario in Glasgow.
“They scored so many goals in the first half of the season. It was sensational.”
