Nico Raskin must work hard to get back into Philippe Clement’s Rangers

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Nico Raskin must work hard to get back into Philippe Clement’s Rangers
Looking a bit happier in the past....

If there’s a Rangers player who is probably wondering what his place at the club is now, it’s Nicolas Raskin.

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The 23-year-old midfielder, so impressive between February and May last year, has gone significantly off the boil and hasn’t really put in a stand out shift in almost the 10 months since.

He did himself no favours with that ill-fated interview with La Tribune in October last year where he described Rangers as ‘just a stage’ in his career, having already expressed his Chelsea ambitions earlier that year.

The sad thing was when he first joined, he bigged our club up so much as a ‘big brother’ of Standard Liege, and how he was absolutely thrilled to get this move. We truly believed his heart was in the right place, despite how badly the end of his time with his hometown club went.

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But none of this would matter half as much if he was at least delivering on the pitch, and he clearly isn’t.

Despite his countryman Philippe Clement taking over at Ibrox, he’s made just 14 appearances since November – true, there’s been injury, but he’s been completely fit since January and has barely played, with 8 starts.

Indeed, if one player started strongly then horribly dipped since that promising early spell it’s Raskin, and it’s understandable why he’s being completely overlooked.

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The fact he wasn’t even in the squad on Sunday said everything you need to know.

Is it attitude?

Well, we’d have to look at precedents, and his conduct at Liege wasn’t good. He admits he acted poorly when a new contract offer in Belgium was well below what he believed his value was worth, and he took to social media to slur the situation. He does regret that. But it shows he has precedence for attitude issues. And still does, because he describes himself as their best player back then who deserved more. A lack of humility for sure.

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And that lack of humility is in there too, with his lofty ambitions of playing for Chelsea and dismissing Rangers as a stepping stone.

Philippe Clement doesn’t want players who don’t have Rangers in their heart 100%. Those were his words, not ours, and going by what his younger countryman has said, he doesn’t have Rangers in his heart 100%.

It wouldn’t matter for now if he didn’t, as long as at least he was giving 100% on the pitch in the meantime. But he hasn’t for a long time, and we wonder just where he goes from here under this manager.

Rangers have better options for now in this position, not least Dujon Sterling and even Kieran Dowell showed more in his cameo than the Belgian has lately.

Raskin would have to turn things round a lot to get back in the picture at Ibrox.

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