As Rangers look ahead to a big summer, one player who can earn his Ibrox redemption and yet live up to his early career hype is Welsh winger Rabbi Matondo.
Bundesliga outfit Schalke 04 reportedly signed a pretty staggering £11m deal to bring the attacker to Germany from Manchester City but, over his three-year stint with the German giants, things didn’t go to plan.
Some stuttering showings aside, Rabbi Matondo struggled to break into the first team and eventually spent last season on loan at Belgian Pro League side Cercle Brugge after failing to impress in 32 appearances.
An explosive season on the continent, where Matondo scored 10 goals, had Rangers knocking on the door with the Ibrox club shelling out a reported £2m fee and about £28k per week on wages to bring Rabbi to Scotland from Germany.
Alongside Ridvan Yilmaz – another costly signing who has struggled to break into the XI consistently this season – Rangers have got to prove their outlays are correct in the face of fans who’ve been left frustrated by some ineffective investment in recent seasons.
Rabbi Matondo Celtic showing proves he has shot at Rangers redemption
The Matondo deal came in for a lot of scrutiny this season given the costs involved, with Rangers going backwards in their attempts to quell Celtic’s Scottish dominance and all but surrendering a treble to Parkhead.
But it’s against the Parkhead club that Rangers fans started to see some further shoots of redemption in Matondo’s Rangers career, with the winger coming into the team as the curtain comes down.
In desperate need of confidence – and that elusive first goal for the club – the season’s run-in is about building belief for Matondo both in the stands and in himself, as well as hopefully getting off the mark for the club.
Amid murmurs the winger could be moved on as Rangers look to rebuild, given his recent first-team exposure and the fact Rabbi was given a four-year deal, the club would do better to integrate him into the side.
Teammate Nicolas Raskin, who knows Matondo very well, claims that the winger is a “top player” and that he’s “excited” to see what he brings next season.
There is a reason why Schalke 04 paid so much to bring Matondo to Germany and, at just 22, there is still plenty of time for the winger to succeed at Rangers.
If the Ibrox side get the £11m player who was tipped for the top as a youngster, it will go some way to wrestling back control of a title they have negligently let slip from their grasp.
