It is time to talk about the biggest signing fail in recent memory at Ibrox. Naturally, Aaron Ramsey was an unmitigated disaster in Govan, given the reputation he came with. In the end, he was absolutely horrendous on the pitch and, of course, will only really be remembered for that penalty miss.
He was, quite simply, absolutely shocking in the Rangers shirt and goes down in notorious folklore forevermore.
However, Rangers had been linked with a player for the best part of three seasons. Denmark’s Andreas Skov Olsen, then at Bologna and also at Club Brugge, was quite the talent. Rangers were long term linked with bringing the winger to Govan and Ibrox Noise was very keen. He was one we absolutely wanted.
Happy at Skov Olsen arriving
And when in January it appeared the Dane was going to arrive, few could have been happier about his loan deal in Govan than us.
Alas, however, it was pretty clear from the word go that he was maybe a ‘little bit off the pace’.
The Dane looked reasonable, but not spectacular. His debut was a generous 8 out of 10 with a generous touch of hoping he would come good.
And while he got 4 goals and assists in 11, it is safe to say that Andreas Skov Olsen, alongside Ramsey, is probably the worst Rangers signing pound for pound based on hype that Rangers have made in five years.
That could even be longer, given just how poor this player actually was considering the reputation he had.
Andreas Skov Olsen fail
Ibrox Noise made the massive mistake regarding Skov Olsen of looking at his time with Brugge and his time in his homeland with Nordsjælland in Denmark, not to mention his time with his national side, and placing that together as the reason to bring him in.
We overlooked his utter failures with Bologna and Wolfsburg. This was a mistake.
The simple problem here was that Club Brugge did not have the pressure levels that Rangers do and Nordsjælland certainly do not. Denmark is a different beast and he did do well with his national side. That is definitely one to have as a feather in his cap.
But when it came to Bologna and Wolfsburg, aka two decent teams in a top five league, Skov Olsen crashed.
The Dane could not cope with the pressure. His numbers were clear. He did not shine and he fell out of the team. He just was not mentally up to it.
Pressure of Rangers
At Rangers, the pressure is similar to a top five league team and he has performed at the level he did in such leagues.
Consequently, he has looked slow, sluggish, unable to beat anybody and turned back far too much.
In simple terms, he just has not been able to play as a penetrative winger in the way Rangers need.
Now in all fairness, he is not the only winger who has failed to perform this season.
Aside from Mikey Moore, who benefited from Tuur Rommens, none of Rangers’ wide men have actually shone at all.
Moore, of course, shone in the second half of the season but has faded recently as time starts to run out on his loan and injury.
Nevertheless, the wide men in general at Ibrox have been well below par, but so much more was expected of Skov Olsen given both his price tag in terms of market value and, of course, his reputation.
He simply utterly failed.
Could we have seen that coming if we had looked at it the right way, understanding the lesser pressure in Brugge and the lesser pressure in Nordsjælland? Perhaps.
Because of course, the pressure he shone under was not so high. He absolutely burned when it came to the big five leagues.
This is exactly the same as what happened with Bojan Miovski.
He shone for Aberdeen in the SPL. Rangers fans wanted him desperately, but when Ibrox Noise noted how poor he was for Girona in a top five league, this was what made us reluctant to bring him in permanently.
We wanted that one to be a loan. Thankfully, Skov Olsen was and he will leave.
He has been such a poor signing for Rangers, such a disappointing addition that we expected so much more from.
But at the end of the day, even the best potential players can simply disappoint because they underestimated Rangers entirely.
Skov Olsen will trot back to Germany and that will be that.