As hinted earlier, Rangers are very close to the signing of Nigeria’s £4M man Cyriel Dessers, with the 28-year-old having agreed terms with the club and Cremonese having agreed a fee. Just a medical remains.
This is an interesting signing, and it’s a bit of a step up from Sam Lammers, who we’re starting to feel might have been a bit of a panic addition in the event of not getting the actual hitman we wanted, and it also spells the definitive end for Haji Wright coming to Rangers and a very, very low likelihood of Feyenoord’s Danilo similarly arriving.
Rangers wanted one of Dessers, Wright or Danilo, and it looks like Dessers is the man who will sign on the dotted line.
So what are Rangers getting in the form of the Belgian-born striker?
His hitrate isn’t really anything spectacular. It’s good, it is definitely commendable, but it’s a bit short of spectacular. His big shining moment came in the Conference League, that season’s top scorer in the competition and of course he played the final too.
But it’s also worth noting that the Conference League is absolute mince and a very low standard – it’s a nowhere tournament, and the Europa League is barely much better.
Indeed, putting Dessers’ Conference League performance into perspective, he scored 10 in 13 and 2 assists. In Eredivise that same season, just 9 in 27 with 2 assists. Conference League is easy, even West Ham won it. But the Dutch top flight is tougher and his return there is not so impressive. 36 in 93. Solid, but not amazing.
He is definitely better than Lammers though, 7 in 29 for Cremonese and 2 assists – it’s an honourable number which is actually about the same as he did in Holland with Feyenoord, so Rangers are not getting a mediocre forward here.
Are we blown away by him? No, not going that far. He looks a good striker and definitely better than some of the rubbish we get linked with, but he’s not sensational. But he is picking us over Torino, over a Serie A team, which is a big deal and shows his desire to join us.
We’ll see how he does once it’s all signed off.