With Hamza Igamane, Danilo and Cyriel Dessers all competing for a place, you’d have to go back quite a while to find the last time Rangers had such an exciting array of centre-forwards.
Perhaps the 2020/21, title-winning vintage – when Steven Gerrard could call upon Alfredo Morelos, a pre-injury Kemar Roofe, Jermain Defoe and Cedric Itten – stands as the most potent attacking selection since Rangers’ return to the Scottish Premiership.
But, if that quartet sits at the top of the tree, then the current crop surely cannot be far behind.
When was the last time Rangers had a third-choice centre-forward capable of scoring 18 goals by the end of January, albeit having spent much of the season’s opening months as Philippe Clement’s go-to striker?
Cyriel Dessers scored a ‘sensational’ strike at Manchester United on Thursday night. As a result, he is just two shy of breaking the 20-goal barrier for the second year in a row in Glasgow.
The irrepressible Hamza Igamane, perhaps Rangers’ best pound-for-pound acquisition since Morelos, has hit the target 12 times in his last 15 appearances.
Danilo, meanwhile, has managed seven in eight appearances across another campaign interrupted by regular visits to the treatment room.
Matija Frigan in Sunderland talks but Rangers should have no regrets
Rangers’ recruitment department has been the subject of near-relentless scrutiny since that Premiership-securing campaign four years ago, and during the subsequent drop-off.
But as Igamane, Dessers and Danilo accumulate 34 goals between them, the Ibrox decision-makers and talentspotters deserve some credit for putting together a varied and talented selection of strikers. Particularly, the club’s technical director, Nils Koppen plucking Igamane from the obscurity of Moroccan football.
And while much of the criticism aimed at Rangers tends to focus on those they could and probably should have signed – Albert Gudmundsson, Andreas Skov Olsen, Joey Veerman and co all slipped the net – regrets should be few and far between when it comes to Matija Frigan.
The Croatian striker was linked with a move to Ibrox back in 2023, following a 15-goal breakout campaign at HNK Rijeka. Rangers would spend just shy of £10 million on Dessers and Danilo instead, while Frigan swapped Rijeka for Belgian outfit KVC Westerlo to the tune of £4.7 million.
Eighteen months on, while Dessers and Danilo still have their doubters, no one could realistically argue that Frigan has come to represent greater value for money. Westerlo have seen only 12 goals from 54 games, and ten in 44 top-flight appearances.
Yet, the Jupiler League outfit could still make a considerable return on their investment. Not within the realms the penalty area – Frigan continues to struggle for consistent form – but with the riches of the Premier League potentially leading to a sizeable influx of cash at the Het Kuipje.
Matija Frigan is a January target for promotion-seeking Sunderland. And, according to Croatian publication Germanijak, talks are ongoing regarding an initial loan deal.
A deal which would become a permanent one – to the tune of £12.5 million – if coach Regis Le Bris can guide Sunderland to promotion out of England’s second-tier.
Rangers should make a huge profit on Hamza Igamane
Now, if Frigan’s value has more than doubled despite averaging fewer than a goal every other four games in Belgium, how much would 22-year-old Igamane be worth following one of the the most explosive breakout seasons in Rangers’ modern history?
“In an ideal world, Igamane is the kind of player you build a team around for years and years to come,” Rangers legend Barry Ferguson tells the Daily Record. “But there has to be a sense of realism where the club’s current position is concerned.
“Rangers are a selling club. And, like it or not, that means they may soon be made an offer which they can’t possibly turn down.
“Just to be clear, I don’t think that’ll happen during the January transfer window. That would be way too soon. But, again, it’s important to remain realistic. And the realist inside me expects some big bids to start arriving over the coming summer.”
Former skipper Ferguson feels that the bidding for Igamane must already start at £10 million. Though that still feels a little on the underwhelming side, at a time when a striker of Frigan’s relatively miserly tally is negotiating a 15 million euro transfer.
“Let’s not forget, this is a kid Rangers signed for £1.5m,” Ferguson adds. “If someone out there is prepared to pay around £10m – or maybe even more than that – for him within 12 months, then that’s exactly the model Rangers need.
“The challenge at that point is to have already identified the next Igamane and to have him lined up as the Moroccan’s replacement.”
