As Mikey Moore becomes yet another loan signing for Rangers this season, Ibrox Noise wanted to look back at loans in the post-2012 era, and compile a list of notable successes and failures.
Just how useful has the loan market been for the club, and is it one we should stick with re: Mikey Moore Rangers loan signing?
We do of course recall the horrendous ‘Premier League lab’ experiment under Mark Warburton. Loan after loan of tonnes of substandard PL kids came to Rangers – Sheyi Ojo, Nathan Oduwa, Gedion Zelalem…
None of these were ever anywhere near good enough for careers at Rangers, and certainly not good enough to shine in the PL.
In the Gerrard era, notable loans have seen Steven Davis, Jermain Defoe and Ryan Kent arrive – neither of those were fails, far from it.
But unfortunately in more recent spells it’s hard to note too many successes especially of those who became permanent.
Rangers saw Vaclav Cerny shine, but he moved on because we couldn’t afford him. Abdallah Sima fits into the same category.
Fabio Silva was a disaster, and Mohamed Diomande hasn’t really justified the cost of being made permanent. This certainly applies to Oscar Cortes too.
Malik Tillman was popular with some and his assist earned the UCL in 2022. But he’s another who departed and is a £40M player these days.
Going back even further, James Sands, Amad Diallo and Aaron Ramsey summed up a dire January window that year. And there’s Andy King, Ianis Hagi and Florian Kamberi.
In simple terms?
There really aren’t many times a player has come to Ibrox on loan, shone, and we’ve kept him.
Either they do great and then leave, or struggle and still leave. Mikey Moore Rangers loan signing may be another.
It’s not a market that profits Rangers much overall, and we do wonder why we even bother with it.