We’ve all seen the Sam Lammers stuff, the digs the boy is taking at Rangers, the fact he’s performing well at Utrecht and how it’s creating column inches.
Indeed, the Scottish press are quite enthusiastic to illustrate how many he’s scoring and how much he’s thriving there, as if to take a dig themselves at Rangers, backing him up and criticising both Philippe Clement and Michael Beale.
But of course, as with all of these stories, the truth is in the detail.
The big story is how well he’s doing as a striker, and how that ties into him slagging off Rangers for not playing him as one.
It ignores his 42 shots and 3 goals regardless of the position he was in at Ibrox, but let’s maybe overlook that for now and concentrate on the real caveats here.
Firstly, he shone as a striker in Holland just fine, for Heerenveen on loan from PSV. He scored many goals for his midtable loan club – 19 and 5 assists in 35.
His parent club got excited, so he went back and guess what: just 3 goals in 10, then he was injured.
And thereafter, when he signed for big money for Atalanta, as a striker, that dreadful PSV form remained with him. 2 in 18. 2 in 24. 2 in 34. 2 in 31
Regardless of league – Germany, Italy or Scotland, he remained absolutely gash.
And three of those above seasons were as pure striker.
It’s only on going back to Holland for a low-pressure club like Utrecht that Lammers regains his shooting boots.
And that’s the point:
If he’s at high pressure club like Rangers or PSV, he crumbles.
If he’s at high level league, like Germany or Italy, he’s utter mince.
If he’s at mid level league and a midtable club in it, he thrives.
He’s a small-time player who somehow got a reputation he didn’t deserve.
He’s where he belongs now, and will make that move permanent this summer, even if he has to come back to Ibrox briefly to do so.
We can’t wait till he’s gone for good.