The Gassama Deal is Done – So Why Are Some Rangers Fans Still Wary? | OneFootball

Finally, the world’s worst-kept secret has been finally let out of the bag, as Rangers at long last confirmed the signing of Sheffield Wednesday attacker, Djeidi Gassama who joins Rangers.

Now, we’re not going to go into a great deal of depth about his traits, his goals or assists (1 assists in 47), or his style. All we will say is that, once again, Rangers are almost exclusively shopping in League One and the Championship, and this is yet another addition that is of that ilk getting Djeidi Gassama who joins Rangers.

We’re also slightly curious at the, what we call, ‘Joe Rothwell syndrome’, whereby, just like with Rothwell from Leeds – albeit he was on loan there – Rangers fans are very much referring to the fact that our signing’s former fans all rated him highly and gave him Player of the Year. This applies to Rothwell and Gassama. If this was the case, wouldn’t their current teams have either kept them desperately, or signed them in the case of Rothwell?

Rothwell is, of course, a former Bournemouth player, and that’s who we signed him from. Leeds was his loan club last season. We do tend to detect a recurring theme with a lot of players that Rangers signed over the last few years, that these lower-league players are the “best player in the club, in the team, or in the entire league”, and that Rangers have done incredibly well to beat off incredible competition to land this “coveted superstar”.

With all due respect, Russell Martin isn’t really that much of a lure. Neither are Rangers at the moment in terms of what we can actually offer financially. Obviously, the club is a grand name, but we’re not exactly that close to Celtic these days. Yes, we are competing to get to the Champions League, but we’re not quite sure, as we offered in an earlier entry, that we’re quite up to the pace that will be required against Panathinaikos.

Nevertheless, Rangers are traditionally a draw, but not these days, and not in the current form that we’re taking. So, we’re not entirely sure that it’s all about getting coveted players who are just attracted to Rangers. There’s obviously money involved, but there’s also the fact that these players are in the lower leagues.

Getting top-level players is hard to do unless they’re unfavoured at their current club and are loans. Case in point, of course, would be Djiga and Aarons. Nevertheless, Djeidi Gassama who joins Rangers means we don’t want to be completely negative. We’re just lacking a little bit of excitement about the signing calibre we’re taking on and the market we’re shoppingin.

Gassama is unfortunately another EFL player who is “the best thing since sliced bread”. We’ve heard that story before, and we’re not that sure that we have the desire to hear it every single time again in the future but as with everything in this era, we only hope our scepticism is unfounded.