Dessers may not be Rangers’ 25-goal man – but who is? | OneFootball

When we look at the uproar about Rangers signing a 25-goal a season man, that fans demand a hitman who will hit into the 30-goal range, it makes Ibrox Noise raise a bit of an eyebrow.

Rangers supporters, rightly, are demanding, and so we should be – biggest club in Scotland, one of the biggest in Britain, we expect players of that calibre at our side.

Cyriel Dessers is divisive – he did score ‘just’ 13 in the league, and 22 overall in 54, which is a less than 50% rate, which isn’t what Rangers need. We’re not going to qualify the lad by adding the assists, because a striker’s job is to score.

But there’s a big catch here:

Rangers don’t, and never really have, had a striker who regularly bags 25+ in the league.

Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller in 2010 and 2011 were the last ones to even get to 23 (and 21) with Boyd managing to get to 27 in 2009.

The last one before this to get past 25? Marco Negri in 1998 with 31.

Under Walter Smith’s great Rangers, even under Alex McLeish’s, Rangers just didn’t have prolific league goalscorers.

So the idea that in this new world Rangers are going to be able to find someone who can bag 30 in a season is the stuff of fantasy or blind luck.

In the recent era it’s Tavernier and Morelos exclusively as top scorers, but neither of them higher than 17. Decent enough, but not the sizzling numbers fans want.

And yet to then point at management and demand a Rangers-level striker bagging 30 is simply false, at least in the last 25 or so years.

Under Dick Advocaat, Walter, Eck and all the rest of them, no striker was ever that prolific.

Indeed, in the past, the only guy in Scottish football to ever be that lethal, regularly, yes, was that Swede from across the city and before him of course our Ally.

In the more ‘recent’ era, aside Boyd, Griffiths, Higdon and Kyogo from that lot are the only ones in Scottish football to breach 25.

So the idea Rangers will sign one this summer is far-fetched.

We’d love it, to luck out and find a 25+ man for a modest price.

We’re just not expecting it. If Walter rarely found such a thing, who can?