7 goal in 16 striker could get big chance at Ibrox – at last

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7 goal in 16 striker could get big chance at Ibrox – at last


It is most certainly true that Rangers are not endowed with top-quality options up front. Jermain Defoe, while prolific, has limitations, not to mention time, against him, while Kyle Lafferty has been a complete failure and simply not delivered.

That Alfredo Morelos is the only viable remaining option is rather poor given the inevitability of his departure this summer. We will discuss Greg Stewart later, but he’s not an overt striker, but rather a 10.

However, one familiar face came home recently, a face Steven Gerrard is known to think highly of, and as Ryan Hardie’s time at Livi came to an end his return to Govan was not unwelcome.

Described by Gerrard as ‘quality’ for the training camp trip to Malaga, Hardie has rarely had anything like a chance in Rangers’ first team – but continued to deliver at Almondvale under Gary Holt. Indeed 7 goals in 16 SPL appearances in the yellow suggests Hardie is the kind of player who, if given the chance in a side capable of delivering opportunities, can excel.

Of course, Livi are a far more defensive unit than most in the Premiership, so for a young striker like he to deliver not only for a team who play like that but in the SPL itself suggests that bar the weight of the Rangers shirt being too heavy for him (it can be, to better players than he), Hardie has absolutely earned a chance at the first team.

He would be a ‘free transfer’, a potential piece of depth for a problem area or indeed someone capable of pushing for the jersey itself.

But Ibrox Noise, for one, is clear on this – even although Steven Gerrard may disagree, it’s our contention Hardie deserves a shot. Even if he turns out to be not good enough, he has sure earned the right to have a pop at it.

We’ll see if Stevie is in tune with us over the coming weeks/months.

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13 COMMENTS

  1. Completely agree. He should go into the first team squad and get his chance(s) between July and December. If he takes them, he gets a new, longer contract. If he doesn't, we sell him for what we can get in January. But he deserves a chance.

  2. Just not good enough! I don't know about you, but I have this wee fancy notion to win the league next season. Ryan Hardie, Greg Stewart, Jake Hastie or any other mediocre player will never ever give the required quality to win the league, utter nonsense talk that Hardie deserves a chance, he would never cut it at Rangers, nor would the other ones I have mentioned.

    • Totally agree, Jimbo. Rangers are trying to 'scrimp' their way, to the top. It seems increasingly clear to me, that they have 'no intention' of shelling out the 'big bucks' and are planning a 'make do' season with youngsters, recalls and budget buys. Seriously not impressed.

  3. How do we know? It is a low cost gamble. The truth is, the players we need we can't afford. If they are of proven quality, then we will be outbid by one of the 50 English clubs who have more money than us. So we can't deal in proven quality. The players that are good enough to guarantee success, we can't afford to buy or pay. We are left looking for scraps. They may have an emotional reason for coming to Rangers, like Arfield. Even then, McBurnie signed a new contract in the Championship rather than sign for the team he supports.
    Others will want to rebuild a career gone wrong, or to raise their profile to get a move to a richer club(Morelos) That is the world we live in.
    I am not suggesting we would buy Hardie. I am saying that he is under contract for another 12 months, so let's see what he can do rather than condemn him without a chance. It costs us nothing. We need Defoe, Morelos(or replacement) and a replacement for Lafferty. Adding Hardie as a fourth for 6 months costs us nothing.
    What is your suggestion Jimbo? Where do we find money we don't have to buy "quality"? Remember, nobody was claiming Kamara was anything other than mediocre in January, but he is good enough. Why is Hastie any different?

    • Scots.. I really understand what your trying to say.
      First of all, we have the second biggest budget in Scotland. We (apparently) hired one of the best Scouting Directors in the world (Mark Allen)! WORLD! Scots, in the world!
      Glasgow Rangers is a WORLD wide product, absolute fact!!
      As I have said previously, if Celtic can find players for £500k and sell on 21 million, why cant we?! SCOUTS,, thats what they are getting paid for. Why the f*'k do we keep buying mediocre players who clearly, so clearly not good enough to deliver the league? Scouts!!
      We cannot afford to put Hardie on the pitch. We need to fight for every point to win the league and prevent Celtic getting 9IAR, Ryan Hardie is hardly the player to strike fear into any defences hearts!!!, no where near the quality required!!
      I will reserve further judgement until I see who comes to our team in the summer. But your Hardie and Hastie will never cut it at Rangers, never!!!

    • Jimbo, maybe you are right. Maybe they will never be good enough. But until we try them, we will not know. I can't see what the difference is between Hardie, Hastie, Kamara and Jack. All have been successfull elsewhere in Scotland. So can you explain how you decide that some will make it at Rangers and some won't. You might be right, I just want to understand your rationale. How can you be certain we can't sell Hastie for £21 million in 3 years? Is it because only foreign players are any good? If Celtic can find Dembele, them why can't we find someone like Morelos, or Tavernier to sell on for a massive profit? But we can.
      If we bring in some of the best young players in Scotland, why is that not good enough to win the league? Arfield started at Falkirk, England has lots of players we can't afford who started in Scotland. We cannot compete with richer clubs, that's just a fact. So we have to look for bargains and young players we can develop. Players like Hastie. Some we will win, some we will lose.
      Again, I am not saying you are wrong. I just don't understand why saying it makes it right without any evidence, anything to substantiate it. You say clearly not good enough. Why?
      As for the budget, yes it is the second biggest in Scotland, but you don't seem to want us to buy in Scotland. We rank outside the top 40 in England. So we are looking for the players discarded by richer clubs or players from the lower leagues that we can develop

  4. I don't agree Hardie deserves his chance. If he gets one fair enough but let's see what he does with it. Players like Hardie, Jones, Hastie and Stewart if he comes may prove to be decent additions but they will not win us the league. We cannot go into the new season with Morelos, Defoe, Lafferty and Hardie as our strikers while likely to sell Morelos and try to offload Lafferty. We must sign at least one more proven striker and we may need to fork out a few million to do it.

  5. I think we will have some money from Morelos to get a few good players in obviously if Hardie is under contract he can add to the squad if SG thinks not then he will be sold . I think he can hold his own with most SPFL teams apart from The Rotten Mob and the Sheep Shagger's where he's not physical or experiencef enough

  6. We are now READY for the duds from the East End. 9 in a row has gone from them now we green teeth is a cert for the job. We could play a second string of players against them and stuff them. Haha rumour has it he has lost the dressing room trying pick favouritism with certain players music to my ears. I fancy the jam tarts next week get your holiday money on them for a convincing win.

  7. BlueBear what's your problem only having an opinion which are like arseholes everyone has one sober ya James Hunt .

    • Scud, that is only half of the saying.
      "Opinions are like arseholes, everybdoy has one and nobody is interested in yours"
      Your opinions are fortunately rare, but always extreme, unsupported by evidence and annoying to read.

  8. Scotswhahea you seem to have a lot to say for yourself in your posts I'm sometimes asleep before I get to the end of yours. Now as for my comment opinions are like arseholes everybody has one your man that writes IN liked it. He used it a while back when I first posted it as a headline to describe the an article he wrote. So a can't be to bad at my stuff when others are using my material. Bye for now. If you need any lessons in needing to write some new script just give me a post and I will sort something out for.

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