Heading into deadline day, three of Philippe Clement’s Rangers regulars – Cyriel Dessers, Jefte and Ridvan Yilmaz – were facing an uncertain final 24 hours of a largely uneventful window.
Or, at least, that was the expectation.
Instead, what some were expecting to be a hectic, dramatic Monday at Ibrox is turning into something far more sedate.
Ridvan Yilmaz is staying at Rangers despite claims that the Turkey international wanted to join former club Besiktas.
Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca all-but ruled out a bid for Jefte before the clock strikes 11pm, insisting that, while Ben Chilwell heads out to Crystal Palace, any replacement left-back will have to wait until the summer.
As for Rangers’ resurgent number nine, Cyriel Dessers has played his way back into Clement’s plans and off the transfer list.
Empoli out of the running for Rangers striker Cyriel Dessers
Cagliari, St Etienne, Leganes and Atlanta United were all linked at various points but, three weeks after Rangers opened preliminary talks to sell Dessers, the ‘for sale’ sticker has been peeled away by a club now keen to keep a striker with six goals and one assist in his last six games in all competitions.
A return to Serie A with struggling Empoli can now also be discounted. The Azzurri Empolesi have now completed a deal for one of their alternative attacking targets.
Christian Kouame, the rangy Ivorian forward who joined Fiorentina in a £9 million move from Genoa five years ago, heads to the Stadio Carlo Castellani on loan as he looks to recapture the form which once put him amongst Italian football’s most coveted young strikers.
Back at Ibrox, the rise and fall and rise again of Cyriel Dessers’ rollercoaster Rangers career remains a source of much discussion, and no little bemusement.
Adored by some, written off by others, Clement appeared to fall into the latter camp when he relegated the £4.5 million signing from Cremonese to third-choice behind Hamza Igamane and Danilo just before Christmas.
Dessers silences critics as Philippe Clement hails striker’s revival
Two months later, Dessers is not only back in Clement’s plans, but back in the XI too. After the Rangers hitman ran Union Saint Gilloise ragged during arguably his finest performance for the club on Thursday night, he was rewarded with a second successive start for the first time since November.
“He’s very important. He made a very good evolution in many things that were for me also not good enough in the beginning,” Clement said after Dessers helped secure Rangers’ place in the Europa League’s last 16 with a superb assist for Vaclav Cerny against USG.
“But you see more and more that he’s using all the potential that he has inside of himself.”
To think, as recently as last month, Cyriel Dessers suffered the ignominy of being booed by his own, erm, ‘supporters’ as Rangers cruised past Aberdeen at Ibrox. There would be plenty of red faces amongst the blue shirts, however, when the much-maligned Nigerian breezed through the Dons defence and kick-started his return to form with a glorious solo goal at the death.
“Yeah, that’s not easy,” Dessers said when asked about the cruel reaction to his late introduction. “That’s quite hard to take.
“But on the other hand, I’ve had a lot of positive interaction as well with fans around the stadium in the city, and I try to take that to heart.
“And when I get out there, I just want to fight with my teammates who I see every day, who respect me, who know the effort I put in in the training ground and then to win like this.
“That just makes me very happy.”
