Doug Ward

Mon 29 May 2023 19:30, UK

It’s hard to argue against the idea that Rangers’ failure to stay at the top of Scottish football has been down to terrible recruitment.

Whether it’s down to players being offered contracts when they shouldn’t have been, stupid big-name signings for the sake of making signings, ill-thought loans, millions spent on back-up players managers don’t rate or the failure to sell when they had the chance, Ross Wilson and co have made blunder after blunder in recent years.

This summer is a huge one and we’ve seen a lot of underwhelming names linked with Rangers at this point.

The Scottish Daily Mail reported on their back page on 29 May that two strikers being looked at to possibly replace Alfredo Morelos are Sam Lammers of Sampdoria and Cyriel Dessers of Cremonese.

They have just eight league goals between them this season in Serie A and are aged 26 and 28, respectively.

That’s not the worst though when you see the Gers linked with ex-Chelsea striker Ike Ugbo, who’s scored just twice in Ligue 1 at Troyes [Scottish Sun]. Michael Beale knows Ugbo from his time at Stamford Bridge but he also probably knew the tea lady there too and the Under-18s kitman. Does he want to bring them to Ibrox too?

Signing players shouldn’t be done on the basis of whether you’ve worked with them before. It’s lazy, unimaginative, reeks of nepotism and has ultimately taken Rangers backwards in recent seasons.

Ryan Kent’s exit from Ibrox is problematic because he was one of the first names on the teamsheet pretty much every week. It’s not easy to sign top wingers and even Kent had his flaws.

However, there’s an option for Rangers to now revisit one of their former targets in Leeds United’s Crysencio Summerville following their relegation from the Premier League on Sunday (28 May).

It was reported by ITV’s Seb Hutchison on 9 January 2022 that Rangers had made a loan bid to sign Summerville, now 21, from Leeds.

Obviously the bid didn’t pan out but now Leeds are an English Championship club once again, there’s a perfect opportunity for Beale to swoop in and try to land the Rotterdam-born dazzler.

The Netherlands Under-21 international shone for Leeds in spells this season despite their demise.

He scored four goals and supplied two assists in 28 Premier League appearances, despite starting just 12 times. That means he was directly involved in a goal in every other league start for the Yorkshire club.

Summerville’s breakthrough season at Elland Road drew major praise from Leeds captain and Scotland defender Liam Cooper, who told LUTV in November 2022 that the Dutch winger has been “unbelievable” in the first team.

Cooper added that Summerville is “going to go on and have an unbelievable career”.

Why can’t that be at Rangers?

He’s young, fast, versatile enough to play on both flanks, can score goals against big clubs (Liverpool and Tottenham) and should be eager for a move following Leeds’ drop to the English second tier.

We have European football on offer, an instant spot in the starting line-up and a stadium that can exceed whatever he’s seen previously at Leeds.

In other Rangers news, the club wants to sign this international striker who will cost millions, with two other signings close, according to this report.