Sergeant Warburton’s Loan-ly Rangers Club – where are they now?

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Sergeant Warburton’s Loan-ly Rangers Club – where are they now?

If
one thing punctuated Mark Warburton’s ultimately disastrous regime at
Ibrox, it was his unforgiveable use of Ibrox and Murray Park as a
pseudo-lab for other teams’ youth players while borderline auditioning
himself for another gig by showing how ‘well’ he could develop these
young players.

As a homage to our fine ex-manager,
Ibrox Noise decided to take an irreverent look down Memory Lane and have
a look at all the departed loanees Bread Man brought in and ask the
pertinent question: ‘where are they now?’


Nathan Oduwa:

One
of the first through the door at Ibrox, Oduwa came from a pretty good
stable in Mauricio Pochettino’s enterprising Spurs side. And when we saw
‘that’ display where he ran riot against Raith Rovers, we allowed
ourselves to believe this was an extraordinary talent. One swift press
soundbite of ‘disrespect’ from Alloa’s Colin Hamilton though and Oduwa
was finished at Ibrox. He left soon after, heading off to the mighty
Colchester in League 2 (barely made a dent there), before Peterborough
gave him nine shots from the bench. Nowadays Oduwa is in the heady
company of Slovenian ‘giants’ Olimpija Ljubljana (yeah I dunno know them
either) having penned a three year deal.

Gedion Zelalem:

Whoever
said this kid could dribble like Iniesta and pass like Xavi was clearly
on something. While he had a touch of composure in some matches, his
general lack of vision, presence, strength or general quality meant that
likewise whoever put him in the world’s top 10 of best youngsters
globally must have been on the same thing. After it became apparent he
was not cut out for top flight football at Ibrox, he headed back south
to Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal. Who quickly dumped him out to the Dutch second division and
the Eerstie Divisie outfit VVV Venlo. That loan is about to expire and
having only played 9 times, with 8 sub appearances among them, it is
safe to say his career is not exactly taking off.

Dominic Ball:

This
was marginally a slightly better one – he was decent in defence, and
decent in defensive midfield. Absolutely nowhere near the standard
needed, obviously, but he did not disgrace himself. Another from the
Tottenham youth ranks, Ball headed back south to Spurs who told him he
was surplus and the best gig he could get was Rotherham before they then
ditched him to Oduwa’s old stomping ground in Peterborough. He remained
there till March when he fell out with staff and went back to Rotherham
where he continues on.

Billy King:

To
this day I will never understand this one. A complete diddy of a
winger, when Rangers already had a tonne of them, who no one even knew
except to say they liked his name when his arrival was announced more or
less out of the blue, King was a shambles at Ibrox. Thankfully he was
not retained beyond that summer, and is currently on loan at
bottom-feeding Inverness.

Ultimately the barometer of
Warburton’s time at Ibrox is these kinds of players, and the mess we
have been left with thanks to boatloads of them coming in. Watching the
lower league English playoffs feels very much like watching Rangers.

With
Hyndman only just out the door, and Toral to follow him, we will see if
their post-Rangers careers fare any better. My bet is they will not.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. How the likes of Dom Ball and Scott Allan must be regretting their decisions now, lads.

  2. To think, all Scott Allan had to do was hunker down for 4 months until January 1st and sign a pre-contract. At that point, Hibs could accept the inevitable and let him go cheap, or wait and let him go for nowt. To the team he supports.

    Hibs did not cover themselves in glory, telling him he could leave for a bigger club, then trying to pretend Rangers were not bigger.

    But he couldn't wait. He took the 30 pieces and now he has to live with that. No sympathy

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