CYRIEL Dessers, the Nigerian striker who Rangers are interested in signing, will have no difficulty adapting to Scottish football if he joins the Ibrox club this summer because of his physical playing style, it was today claimed.
Dessers, who has previously played for Lokeren and Genk in Belgium and Utrecht, Heracles and Feyenoord in the Netherlands, was unable to prevent Cremonese from finishing second bottom of Serie A in Italy and being relegated this season.
However, Marco Negri, the former Rangers striker who has worked as a specialist forwards coach since retiring from playing, has been impressed by the 6ft 1in 28-year-old’s performances up front for the Lomardy outfit in the past 10 months.
He can understand why his former club, whose manager Michael Beale is looking to increase his options in attack following the departure of record European goalscorer Alfredo Morelos from Govan, are keen to sign him.
Ex-Udinese, Bologna and Perugia player Negri, who netted 36 goals for Walter Smith’s side in the 1997/98 season and finished his debut campaign as Scotland’s leading goalscorer, stressed that Dessers is not a prolific marksman.
However, he feels the three-times capped internationalist has many attributes as a footballer and could be deployed in a number of different formations by Beale both at home and abroad if Rangers and Cremonese can agree a fee in the coming days.
“Dessers is a strong guy,” he said. “He is really, really physical. Cremonese were relegated to Serie B at the end of the season, but I thought he had a very good season for them.
“It was his first season in Serie A. But he certainly showed he can fight against a big defender. He always worked very hard for the team. On both sides of the game – on the offensive side and the defensive side – as well.
“He has areas of his game that he could improve. He is not a natural goalscorer and he did not score a lot of goals (he was on target seven times in all competitions) for Cremonese. For me, he has to try and increase the number of goals that he scores in a season. He is not an Ally McCoist type player who can score 30 goals a season.
“But he is certainly a fighter, a guy who can bring some energy to a team. He is physical, he can battle in one-v-one situations, he can hold the ball up, he can make clever runs for his team mates. He can definitely do a job up front.
“He can play in a two man front line or he can play as a lone striker with two players supporting him. You can play high balls up to him because he is strong with his head, you can play it to his feet because he can hold the ball. I think he would be a good signing for Rangers.”
Cremonese paid Genk £5.5m for the Tongeren-born striker back in August and are looking to receive £6m for him this summer; they knocked back the initial seven figure bid that Rangers made earlier this week.
However, Negri reckons Dessers will be keen to move to a club where he will be guaranteed European football next season – possibly in the Champions League group stages – and is confident the transfer will go through in the coming days.
“I think they can do the deal because, at the end of the day, Cremonese are now in Serie B,” he said. “The guy will want to sign for a club like Rangers. It will be a dream come true for him. He can always give me a phone call if he isn’t sure what to do and I will advise him to sign!”
