We found the content regarding Bojan Miovski’s interviews with the press recently a very intriguing move from the Macedonian striker. There would of course have been, to his attention, the supposed exclusive story from Football Insider regarding him engineering a move out of Rangers. He took to the press, essentially, to not exactly dispel this story, but to admit that if an opportunity came up elsewhere then obviously he wants to play.
Miovski referred to his goal rate, suggesting that 13 goals was not too bad overall. He is not exactly wrong. Miovski barely played last season. And those numbers are similar to Lawrence Shankland’s fail in Belgium.
Why The Signing Was Always A Gamble
The problem, of course, is that the reason he barely played last season is because fundamentally, the signing was not a wise one.
Ibrox Noise was against the signing of Bojan Miovski as anything other than a loan with option. We warned aggressively that paying up front for a player unproven at the pressure levels of Rangers, or having indeed failed at the pressure level of La Liga as he did with Girona, was a bad move.
The signing of Miovski was a gamble and a significant one. Essentially, it did not work out, at least not yet, and in time it is unlikely to do so.
Falling Down The Pecking Order
He has been dumped down to fourth choice striker at best because manager Danny Rohl will not elevate him above his own signing Ryan Naderi, and it appears that Youssef Chermiti is the second top choice.
Shankland naturally should be first choice, but who knows with this manager exactly what will be, but Miovski is a low priority and he knows it.
He has indeed been trying to big up his stats to prove that he is worth a chance at Rangers, but we do imagine that if a decent offer comes in, Miovski will be offski.
Pressure Has Always Been The Issue
The problem with Miovski, of course, was that he failed at the pressure of Girona. The pressure of Girona itself is not huge, but the standard of La Liga is far higher than the standard of the Scottish Premiership.
To shine in the Scottish Premiership with Aberdeen is a completely different animal to shining at either Girona in La Liga or with the pure pressure that is Rangers.
He did neither.
Rangers fans were very, very eager during the Cyriel Dessers years to have Bojan Miovski. Many would compare the two and point out or claim that Miovski was far the better player.
Ibrox Noise did of course confirm that this was false and the stats in actual fact favoured Dessers far more.
Miovski had done well and he had good, strong stats. But that did not in any way guarantee he would do well at Rangers.
And when he went to Girona, many fans were extremely angry with Rangers for not making the move for him.
But Ibrox Noise was always cautious based on pressure. Because doing it for Aberdeen is an entirely different animal to doing it for Rangers.
There was nothing about Miovski that we believed would translate to doing it under the floodlights of Govan.
And so it proved in La Liga. He could not cope at that level either and he has struggled at Rangers. And of course unless a club comes in for him, Rangers are stuck with a high cost player.
Has He Justified The Fee?
Let us not forget the initial cost was £2.5M up front, but that was rising to £5M on appearances.
We believe that that has actually been triggered, and he is a £5M striker at Rangers now.
He has not exactly proven value for that cash. But then, has anybody in the last season or so proven to be value for cash?
The answer is very, very few, and Miovski is just another example.