Rangers signed him for £3M, wasted him, and now he’s on fire
Anderlecht's Hannes Delcroix and YB's Cedric Itten fight for the ball during a soccer game between Belgian RSC Anderlecht and Swiss BSC Young Boys, Wednesday 24 August 2022 in Brussels, the return game of the play-offs for the UEFA Conference League competition. BELGA PHOTO KURT DESPLENTER (Photo by KURT DESPLENTER / BELGA MAG / Belga via AFP) (Photo by KURT DESPLENTER/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)
Speaking of ex-Rangers players thriving in their new environments, Ced the Ted also made a switch to Switzerland like Niko Katic, but of course for Itten, this was a move home, and to the biggest team in Switzerland, Young Boys.
So how has the utterly underused Rangers striker done back on familiar territory for a side who are kind of the Swiss equivalent of Rangers?
19 appearances, 7 goals and 9 assists, but the mix of these stats is intriguing – he’s got 6 in 13 in the league making him second-top scorer in the division behind only team mate Nsame (who Rangers faced not long ago), while in the Conference League he has no goals but an excellent 4 assists in 5 appearances.
So, long story short, he’s another one who’s doing great, away from Ibrox. He’s also regained his international credibility, getting call ups again, even if he’s yet to add to his cap haul.
Now, Rangers aren’t too short for quality strikers, with the sensational Colak doing very well indeed, while Morelos, Roofe and Sakala are in reserve, but the reality is Itten was and is a much, MUCH better striker than he was made to feel at Ibrox, with Steven Gerrard then Giovanni completely mistreating him.
He went out on loan because he just wasn’t getting minutes, and struggled deeply with confidence at a horrible German side, before coming back a nervous lamb, shattered belief and utterly flat.
A new start back home and hey presto, Itten is back to scoring and assisting, in another case of a player treated poorly at Rangers, rejected, sent away, then eventually sold and now thriving at their new employer.
We cannot explain why this happens so much at Rangers – obviously as Rangers fans we can’t exactly tell you if it happens a lot at Man Utd, or Liverpool, or Bayern Munich, but we can talk about our own club, and we spent £3M on Cedric Itten and refused to use him.
Just like Umar Sadiq, Itten has thrived at every club he’s played for, apart from Rangers.
Is there something in the water here?