Gary Keown: Rangers mismanagement of breathtaking scale amid ‘absolutely rotten’ Ryan Kent development
Gary Keown has slaughtered Rangers’ handling of Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos, saying the former has not done enough to win himself a new deal at Ibrox.
Morelos is widely expected to leave Ibrox in the summer when his contract expires but there seems to be a chance that Kent will be handed a new deal by the Gers.
And while columnist Keown believes Kent has improved under Michael Beale’s leadership, the former Liverpool winger hasn’t done well enough and a turgid display in the 3-2 defeat at Celtic on Saturday (8 April) cements his opinion.
Writing in the Scottish Mail on Sunday (9 April, page 98), Keown said: “Kent’s form has improved since Beale replaced Giovanni van Bronckhorst and offered greater on-field freedom, but it is still not good enough. Not convincing enough, given the money it will take to sign him up on a new contract in the summer.
“Performances like yesterday’s are too common. And yesterday is the kind of day when hard decisions must be formed about him – because Rangers are very much at that stage with the 26-year-old.
“He was absolutely rotten. The inclination in football is to try to protect your investments. Of course, he should have been sold when Leeds were sniffing. Just as Morelos should have been flogged to Lille when they put £16m on the table.
“They both can walk for free when there was around about £30m there to be taken is mismanagement of playing assets on a breathtaking scale. It can never happen again.”
Woeful
While we agree that Kent’s form has improved under Beale, the failure to perform in a match of this scale says it all about the Englishman.
Kent isn’t Rangers material.
Has he ever been, though?
Sure, the ex-Liverpool attacker’s performances in Europe were good a couple of seasons ago and he did play a big role in ending Celtic’s bid for 10-in-a-row.
But other than that, what has Kent ever done to justify his price tag?
Everyone points to his number of goals and assists because they’ve never been good enough really when Rangers score so many times and boss so much possession.
He’s a luxury player but when we’re not winning titles regularly and not the dominant force in Glasgow, it’s not worth having him.
Kent needs to go in the summer.
It’s not going to be an easy decision because he’ll be going on a free transfer which, as Keown said, is a serious case of mismanagement from Ross Wilson and co.
We could’ve got millions for him.
Not we’re not even going to get peanuts.
In other Rangers news, Simon Donnelly blasted this “terrible” Gers player after the Old Firm defeat.