With Antonio Colak now finally in place to start his Rangers career, I hope the club has secured a striker approaching the peak of his powers.
I was 28 - the age the former PAOK man is now - when signing for Rangers for the second time in 2008. Everyone’s different but you like to think as a centre forward you’re coming into those two, three, maybe five prime years depending on how you look after yourself.
And I wish for Alfredo Morelos to stick around and push Colak to hit those heights for every year the Croatian is at Rangers. I’d love to see the pair of them drive each other on - and for Kemar Roofe to be fully fit to provide even more competition up front. But, for the moment, we don’t know if Colak’s arrival is as a replacement for Alfredo or to work with him.
The Ibrox hierarchy clearly felt this guy was more than capable of carrying the weight of that jersey. After watching a bit of him, he looks a well-rounded centre forward who’ll adapt to any situation or what the role demands. He looks equipped. Sure, he’s been on a lot of loans from Hoffenheim back in Germany, struggled for goals in Greece.
But he had great seasons with Rijeka and the loan at Malmo. He’s sampled different European leagues, that’s good experience; he has a decent number of games under his belt.
At 28, I felt comfortable with the player I was and pretty clear on the role. I probably went on to play a lot of my best football for Rangers at that time, although I’d had a right good spell at Wolves a few years earlier. At that age, I felt I’d developed a great understanding of the role and my teammates; working out what their strengths were, what they expected of me, having that connection.
It felt easy with guys like Barry Ferguson, Pedro Mendes, Stevie Naismith, Steven Davis and Kris Boyd round about me. Me and Boydy’s game matched up. In laymen's terms, Boydy was the scorer and I was the worker or linker.
Then when Nikica Jelavic arrived in 2010, either of us could do pretty much any part of the job. When one was doing one, one could do the other.
So, you never know, if Morelos and Colak are that good they maybe both fight their way into the team. Sometimes if you’ve two players at a high level you’ve got to find a way to get them in.
It was unfortunate Nikica got a bad injury in October that season because we formed a really productive partnership. I scored 10 league goals in the first six games, an incredible start to the season.
When I watched Colak play against Rangers, he was pretty mobile and, as we know to our cost in the Champions League qualifier at Ibrox, a real goal threat. His movement and finishing were excellent. He links the game well, there’s physicality. This incoming transfer rumbled on for a few weeks. Alfredo leaving has rumbled on for five years!
And here we are again. I’d like to see my former teammate stay. He’s a big player for the team, he’s comfortable in the Rangers environment.
Rangers, as everyone knows, have to win every week. The pressure falls on YOUR shoulders as the main striker to secure a lot of these wins that get you titles, cups and European runs.
Can Rangers come to an agreement with Alfredo to get him signed for longer, allowing them to demand a higher fee at some point? How will he react to Giovanni van Bronckhorst signing a new striker? It looks like he’s handled that well over the years.
They’ve got to have gauged what Alfredo’s thoughts are. Particularly in Europe, since Steven Gerrard came in, he’s hit huge numbers and produced top performances.
This season, he could still help navigate a way through the Champions League qualifiers. If he’s fit and firing, coming off quite a serious injury, then he could have a big part to play in them. And if he can help Rangers secure the group stage riches then it’s been worthwhile hanging on to him.
He might even move on after that but I’d rather he stayed. What does it all mean for Roofe? It’s competition. His goal ratio is about one in two. It was 17 in 36 appearances last season, 18 in 36 the year before.
So that’s pretty similar to Alfredo and he’s not started as near as many games at him. We’ve two decent scorers there. But you’re always looking for is something different. To push people on to get better.
Towards the end of last season, with the number of massive games Rangers went into without a recognised striker, this was a situation needing addressed. There’s been a few striker misfits in years gone by. There’s never any guarantee.
You can do all the work and due diligence perfectly well, figure that a player has got all the attributes needed and the right character to deal with being at Rangers. You can tick all the boxes and it still might not work. More firepower was required and, through Ross Wilson and the recruitment team’s work in recent years, I trust them that they’ve landed the right man.
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