As the Rangers supporters watched Jose Cifuentes trudge through his brief nine-game stint on the Scottish Premiership stage, they would have been forgiven for wondering what it is the Ecuador international actually does.
Not quite a disaster – certainly not on the same level as another 2023 recruit in Sam Lammers, for instance – but a million miles away from a success.
Mick Beale, never afraid to make outlandish claims, argued that Jose Cifuentes could take Rangers to ‘a different level’ when completing that £1.2 million deal with Los Angeles FC.
Farmed out on loan to Cruzeiro only a few months later, however, Cifuentes now looks destined to go down not as one of the worst signings in the club’s recent history but definitely one of the most forgettable.
Yet, Greek outfit Aris Thessaloniki obviously saw something in Cifuentes. Something worth investing a potential club-record fee of £4.2 million in.
Rangers are in line to make a substantial profit if the 26-year-old midfielder joins Aris on a permanent deal following his latest loan spell.
But, for much of his time in the Greek Super League, Cifuentes’ underwhelming performances made that reported £4.2 million fee look about as eye-watering as it first appeared when the contract was initially drawn up back in August.
Cifuentes is also reportedly Aris’ best-paid player. Not just now, but ever. Wages he was, until very recently, struggling to justify.
Jose Cifuentes may yet earn Aris stay as Rangers loanee shines at last
According to reports at the turn of the year, Aris had paused discussions with Rangers over a full-time arrangement.
Following a run of six straight defeats with Cifuentes in the team – chat, what is the opposite of a ‘lucky charm’? – claimed emerged suggesting that Aris coach Marinos Ouzounidis was running out of patience.
After that ineffective spell with Rangers, and only 114 minutes of Brazilian Serie A action at Cruzeiro, a move to Aris was starting to feel like a continuation of a rather sorry trend.
But, as the Yellow and Blacks begun their Europa Conference League play-offs with successive 2-0 wins over Asteras and OFI Crete, is the real Jose Cifuentes finally standing up?
Nearly two years since crossing the Atlantic, in his third club since the summer of 2023, is he belatedly showing what Mick Beale was talking about when he described Cifuentes as the sort of player capable of dragging a team to new heights?
“ARIS have been creating several constants in the last two games. Constants in their game, constants in the players who do not deviate from their upward trajectory – like Jose Cifuentes,” explain the All About Aris website.
“In the play-offs, the 25-year-old midfielder presents exactly the image that ARIS has been asking for so long from him. Not just being positive but sometimes also leading, being the top player on the field.”
Cifuentes rediscovers MLS form with more attacking role in Greece
Cifuentes grabbed an assist, only his third in 27 games, during that Asteras victory at the end of March. Freed up to play a more attacking role by Ouzounidis, that was one of eight chances Cifuentes created in two play-off games.
Considering that Cifuentes arrived at Rangers with a reputation for being a midfielder who could make big contributions in the final third – seven goals and eight assists in the 2022 MLS campaign – one wonders why it took so long for Ouzounidis to give him the freedom he so clearly craves.
“The midfielder from Ecuador responded to the measures given to him by Ouzounidis to create,” All About Aris go on to explain, Cifuentes also winning back possession five times in what was a complete central midfielders performance against Crete.
“Of course, the longer he continues like this, the more the talk about his future will intensify. The final decision belongs to ARIS, who will weigh all the data at the end of the season.
“However, if Cifuentes continues like this, then the only thing that will concern the team in the end will be the financial aspect.”
“With these performances, Cifuentes is assured of staying at Aris next season,” Press Aris add. “Which is something he seems to want.”
Presuming they have the money in the bank to make that £4.2 million agreement into reality, Rangers’ substantial summer windfall – and Jose Cifuentes’ hopes of a clean break away from Ibrox – are very much back on the cards.
