Barry Ferguson drops verdict on Rangers re-signing Ryan Kent in January
Barry Ferguson has told Philippe Clement to re-sign Ryan Kent for Rangers in January after a loan move was mooted from Fenerbahce.
Writing in his column for the Daily Record (18 November), the former Ibrox skipper was speaking about the January transfer window and what Clement may want to do with his squad considering he is expected to have “budget constraints” to deal with.
Kent left the club on a free transfer to move to Fenerbahce in the summer but has struggled for game time, and Ferguson believes bringing him back to Ibrox could be the answer to some of the manager’s problems.
“It will be interesting to see what Clement does in the January transfer window,” he wrote.
“Obviously there will be budget constraints, but he will want to make his imprint with a couple of signings, I’m sure.
“There has been a bit of talk this week about Ryan Kent being one of them, with a return on loan from Fenerbache being mooted in some quarters. I don’t know if the manager would see that as a priority position for him, but if he is looking for someone who can play anywhere at the top end of the pitch and provide something different, then Kent could be that guy.
“I like him. Always have. Even when things weren’t going particularly well, he always put in a shift for the team. He didn’t hide and was always demanding the ball.
“I’d have him back but I suspect a lot of moving parts would have to align for it to happen. The most important being the desire of the manager to make it happen.”
Interesting
Most Rangers fans have moved on from the whole saga that involved Kent and Alfredo Morelos last season, where their future seemed to be spoken about more regularly than the actual team.
It was almost seen as a relief when they both left the club as it meant that we could crack on with our club and not have them overshadowing things with constant speculation about their futures.
It hasn’t quite worked out for Kent in Turkey and while Abdallah Sima was brought in as a replacement and has performed well, we have struggled for depth with Rabbi Matondo, Tom Lawrence and Kieran Dowell suffering with injuries throughout the season.
Sima has been able to play through the middle and we know Kent is versatile enough to play across the forward line too, so a loan deal until the end of the summer could be a way to bolster the squad without too many complications.
But after closing that chapter in the summer, re-opening it could end up bringing old wounds back that we don’t need. Ultimately it’s the manager’s choice, but we have bigger priorities.
In other Rangers news, Carragher believes Premier League should have intervened in Gers transfer.