Anthony Onifade

Wed 19 April 2023 21:10, UK

Tam McManus believes Ryan Kent’s inconsistencies at Rangers mean he’ll have to settle for a club like Burnley rather than the top clubs in England should he move on this summer.

The Gers winger is out of contract at the end of the season and is currently free to discuss pre-contract deals with interested parties ahead of a potential summer transfer.

And according to Mail Plus [18 April], Kent is one step closer to a Rangers exit after high-flying Sky-Bet Championship side Burnley “made their move” to sign him this summer and the Scottish Sun revealed on 15 April that they were now set to scout him over the remaining matches of the season.

And McManus insists a high-end Championship side are amongst the best clubs the 26-year-old can hope for right now. He told PLZ [via Daily Record, 19 April]: “If you are purely judging him on goals and assists, which a lot of people do now, I don’t think he’s been great. But I think he is a very good football player, it’s a weird one. Sometimes I look at him and he looks electric, he goes past people and you get off your seat.

“Then you are back in your seat quickly. He’s one of those players who gets you off your seat but you’re back on it in two seconds because he’s put it over the bar or crossed it in and hit the first man. A top-end Championship club or a club like Burnley getting promoted is the peak of where he is going to get to. He is a very good player and he started well, maybe Burnley or whoever it is in England will get a better tune out of him in terms of goals and assists.

“But he’s going down to play against better players in a harder league. He’s 26 and should be coming into the peak years of his career and his end product has to be better. For the level of ability, he has, he should be in the top three or four every season for Player of the Year every season, and he hasn’t.

“If you said to me who the best is in the Rangers squad, or who is the most talented, I’d say Ryan Kent every day of the week. But he doesn’t do it every week and that is why he is going to a Burnley and not a Spurs, Aston Villa, somebody like that.”

Will have to wait

It seems an Ibrox departure at the end of the season is inevitable for Kent as he seeks to run the remaining two months on his current Rangers contract, but McManus is right, he’ll have to wait for a big move given his inconsistencies in a Gers shirt.

Kent is certainly a player who excites and gets bums off seats but these moments are very fleeting. There’s no doubt, he’s a talented player but his inconsistencies won’t get him the top-end Premier League moves that he is desiring right now.

And it does seem as if Burnley is arguably his best bet at Premier League football which represents the ideal next move. Whether that’s a step up or a step down from Rangers is debatable but there’s a long way to go before Kent can be considered a player capable of playing for the elite sides in the Premier League.

Just three goals in 29 Scottish Premier League games really isn’t good enough, especially for a player as good as he is, in the position he plays and the fact that he’s playing regularly.

Playing under a progressive and innovative coach in Vincent Kompany could be ideal for him to take the next level, but McManus is very accurate in his assessment that Burnley is his best hope of a Premier League move right now.

In other Rangers news, a winger is already being targeted as a possible Ibrox replacement.