Rangers will attempt to secure Abdallah Sima permanently after manager Philippe Clement admitted the Senegal international’s future is a priority and he aims to deal with it before the summer even transpires.
The Brighton winger/striker is on loan at Rangers till the end of the season, and has proven himself a natural goalscorer with some sterling numbers up front, and after a significant 6-week goal drought, the attacker got a brace again at the weekend to restore the old form and regain the momentum.
And that has seen the first time Clement has spoken in such glowing terms about him and how he wishes to keep the lad long-term.
He said:
“If he is continuing what he is doing now, I think this is also a good place for him to grow, as a player, as a person, in everything. It’s not about assessing that in the summer. There will be talks faster than that. But of course it’s really early to be doing that now. The most important thing is that Abdallah is performing and that he feels really good in the club. That’s the first step so we can build on that.”
There’s been a lot of talk about Sima and Clement has been emphasising his ‘trials’ as a new dad recently, the forward also very much talking with pride about his new daughter, but this is the first time we’ve seen some real praise from the boss about the forward.
The problem here is market value.
Rangers simply cannot afford a striker with a market number of around the £7M+ mark as Sima is – that’s more or less what Brighton paid, and such a thrifty and well-run club will not be keen to lose this guy for a loss given the incredible profits they made on the mediocre Mac Allister and struggling Caicedo.
So a deal would have to be struck which suits both sides – Brighton won’t be interested in a loss on him, but Rangers can’t afford to spend £7M on one player.
Clement went on:
“This is a demanding club so you love that or you have difficulty with that. You need a big personality to be strong with that in the moments when people are not happy about things. Then you need to fight through. And Abdallah has shown that in these weeks. It’s hasn’t been the whole time that he’s getting praise. But he also fights through and that’s also one of the things we need to look really hard into in the assessment of players.”
Sima clearly copes with it, even when it’s not going great for him – the boy has resilience for sure and this is the biggest club he’s ever been at with higher demands than anywhere else, and he’s come through a barren patch of form with a brace.
Clement clearly wants more of that.
Time will tell if he gets his wish.