Glasgow Rangers head coach Philippe Clement and head of recruitment Nils Koppen looked to overhaul the playing squad during the summer transfer window.
There was a clear emphasis on lowering the average age of the squad with their work, when it came to allowing stars to leave and bringing talented prospects in.
Experienced campaigners Borna Barisic, Ryan Jack, Kemar Roofe, Connor Goldson, Scott Wright, Jon McLaughlin, and John Lundstram, among others, were allowed to move on from Ibrox.
Meanwhile, young talents like Clinton Nsiala, Connor Barron, Oscar Cortes, Hamza Igamane, Mohammed Diomande, and Jefte have been brought in.
This suggests that Rangers are looking to develop and improve young players to increase their value, whilst getting fantastic performances on the pitch, to then sell them on for a profit in the future.
Selling talent for big money has not been one of the club’s strengths in recent years. As per Transfermarkt, the Light Blues have only sold one player – Calvin Bassey – for more than €15m in their history, whereas their rivals Celtic have cashed in on seven players for more than €15m.
This shows that Rangers have a lot of work to do to catch up with their neighbours and their blunder with Ryan Kent is a great example of what not to do.
Ryan Kent’s first season with Rangers
Former Light Blues manager Steven Gerrard returned to his former club to sign the English winger on a season-long loan move from Liverpool in the summer of 2018.
The Reds youngster arrived at Ibrox off the back of a disappointing 2017/18 campaign, in which he produced zero goals and two assists in 17 games for Freiburg and Barnsley combined.
Kent hit the ground running in Glasgow, though, with a return of six goals and nine assists in 43 appearances in all competitions for the Scottish giants.
The left winger racked up six goals and six assists in 23 appearances in the Scottish Premiership before the top six split, which showed that he could provide regular quality as both a scorer and a creator of goals from a wide position.
His performances in the division earned him the PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year award, which speaks to how impressive his displays were during his loan spell.
Gerrard and Rangers then opted to pursue a permanent deal for the Liverpool winger and managed to agree a fee of £7.5m to snap him up on a four-year deal in the summer of 2019.
The deal was a guaranteed fee of £6.5m, with a further £1m in add-ons, and it was a huge investment by the Gers in a player who had enjoyed a terrific first season at the club.
Ryan Kent’s soaring value
Kent’s soaring market value and his performances on the pitch over the subsequent two years suggested that the Light Blues played a blinder by signing him for £7.5m.
The 2019/20 campaign was not an extraordinary year for the forward, with eight goals and four assists in 33 matches, but it proved that his goalscoring threat in his loan spell was not a flash in the pan.
He then exploded in the 2020/21 season with a sensational return of 13 goals and 14 assists in 52 appearances in all competitions for Gerrard, including four goals and assists combined in ten Europa League outings.
20/21 Premiership | Ryan Kent |
|---|---|
Appearances | 37 |
Sofascore rating | 7.23 |
Goals | 10 |
Big chances created | 9 |
Assists | 9 |
Key passes per game | 1.8 |
As you can see in the table above, 19 of those goal contributions came in the Premiership as Rangers won the title without losing a single match.
The English forward’s exceptional performances as a scorer and a creator of goals earned him a place in the PFA Scotland Team of the Year that season.
Kent’s superb showings in Scotland attracted interest from down south and it was reported in the summer of 2021 that Leeds United had an offer of £11m rejected and that they were lining up a £15m swoop for his services.
However, the Light Blues ultimately turned down the Whites’ advances and kept hold of the attacker instead of cashing in on him when his value was double what they paid Liverpool for his services.
Rangers blundered with Ryan Kent
The decision not to accept the offer from Leeds turned out to be a howler from the Scottish giants as Kent’s performances on the pitch declined.
In the 2021/22 campaign, a season in which Giovanni van Bronckhorst replaced Gerrard in the dugout, the winger produced just three goals in 46 matches in all competitions, along with 11 assists in the Premiership.
That was a serious decline from the 13 goals he scored under the former Liverpool midfielder in the 2020/21 title-winning season for Rangers.
Kent, who was once dubbed “unplayable” by journalist Andrew Dickson, followed that up with a return of just three goals and ten assists in 44 matches in all competitions during the 2022/23 campaign, with all of those contributions coming in his 29 outings in the Premiership.
This shows that the winger was unable to recapture the electric form that saw him produce 13 goals and 14 assists in his best year with the club.
In the summer of 2023, Kent’s contract with the Gers expired and Michael Beale could not agree an extension with the Englishman, which meant that he walked away for nothing.
This meant that Rangers lost a star who was once valued at a whopping £15m, and a player they paid £7.5m to sign in 2019, left the club for £0 to sign for Turkish side Fenerbahce.
Therefore, the Light Blues blundered with Kent as they did not cash in on him when his value peaked and his performances declined after that, before they ended up losing him for nothing.
If they are going to go down the route of developing young players under Clement in the years to come, Rangers will need to improve the timing of their sales and know when the right time to cash in on a star is, so that they avoid a repeat of the Kent disasterclass.
