Rangers’ forgotten man returns – what now?

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Rangers’ forgotten man returns – what now?


With all the summer flurry of activity (both incoming and outgoing) one man has been completely forgotten about from a small touch of focus by Rangers’ media channels.

The return of Jamie Murphy really has gone down as inconspicuously as you like, with the fit-again winger in the Algarve for pre-season and determined to be part of the new campaign under Steven Gerrard, but the truth is his prospects are extremely limited and if we’re brutally honest we’re only slightly surprised if nothing else that he actually travelled.

Bear in mind, Graham Dorrans (and others who have contributed even less than Murphy) was left in Glasgow on the basis of not being part of Stevie’s plans, and while the manager has signed attacker after winger after attacker, Murphy finds himself in the summer training camp pushing for a place?

The blunt truth, for us, is that unless Jamie Murphy has a gear to move into that he has only glimpsed at showing in our colours, we struggle to see what role he can play next season in the face of competition like Jordan Jones, Jake Hastie, and depending on flexibility of use, Sheyi Ojo and Scott Arfield.

Of course, he’s fit again, and he’s worked towards this the whole season, so we’d imagine taking this away from him would have borderline killed the lad. Plus it is only fair to let him prove himself and give him a real chance to stake a claim.

But with all these younger models coming in, we nevertheless see a pretty bleak outlook for the ex-Brighton man. If Steven Gerrard saw Jamie Murphy like a new signing, why would he bring literally three wingers in over the summer, two of which are specifically for his position?

It’s possible, we suppose, he views Murphy as a ‘replacement’ for Ryan Kent, but they’re stonkingly different wingers – Murphy cuts in a lot, dribbles at modest pace and lays the ball off – Kent drives at players, tries to beat them and assists and scores. It’s apples and oranges really.

But there’s equally no harm in giving the boy a chance.

We just wonder why certain others weren’t.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. A little pessimistic, I fear.
    Murphy has played 18 games for the famous with 4 goals and 8 assists
    Ryan Kent has played 39 games for the famous with 6 goals and 4 assists.
    I love Kent, his attitude, his pace, his aggression his ability and his potential.
    But I am struggling to see how Kent displays better outcomes. Maybe Murphy moves into the No 10 jersey, maybe SG just wants lots of options, I don't know. But I hope, and I honestly think, Murphy has something to offer us next season

    • At no point did we judge his pre-injury ability Hami, only that he now faces a tonne of competition. As for the assertion he was one of our best players, you might be in the minority with that one.

  2. Personally don't think kent would have been seen as much last season had Murphy not fallen victim to the killie carpet. Nowhere near as skilfull as kent, confident he would have had more goals/assists than kent if he'd been fit The big man just drops a shoulder n drops by people (hearts at ibrox, that was class!). Can't remember Kent actually doing much prior to the parkhead game. Surely give us more than Grezda/Middleton, he must've earned it or he would've been ditched with Rossiter

  3. A think he is a good player that somtimes we missed badly when Kent was missing last season. I'm happy he is back who ever gets the nod on the left if we don't get Kent will do damage.

  4. What now ? He gets fit , hopefully gets back to the form he was showing before his injury and competes for a place .He can play both sides and off the striker and works hard for the team so he will be a valuable asset next season .He will be one of 4 competing for two wide slots as Middleton will be out on loan, Grezda will go and Kent isn`t ours .His experience will be vital .As to why he will be given a chance ,he hasn`t been perpetually injured like Dorrans and Rossiter and probably has a much better attitude than Lafferty and Grezda . Trust the backroom team to do the right thing ,I do.

  5. Totally agree this is a player who did the business at a higher level, played a big part getting Brighton back in the big league, a player who drifts into dangerous areas a very clever player. Only worry is that the injury and age might have blunted the skills a bit, hope he gets a chance to show they haven't.

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