What's happened to ex-Sheffield Wednesday star Djeidi Gassama at Rangers - Danny Rohl twist is interesting | OneFootball

The former Owls winger has stalled after a bright start, and Danny Rohl’s arrival has added a new layer to his struggle for form

When Djeidi Gassama left Sheffield Wednesday in the summer, it was hard not to feel a pang of regret.

Amid the financial turbulence that hollowed out Hillsborough, the winger had been one of the club’s genuine success stories: a low-cost, high-upside talent who found form and confidence under Danny Rohl during Wednesday’s unexpectedly resilient 23/24 campaign, and blossomed in 24/25.

His move to Rangers - for a fee Wednesday could scarcely turn down despite the low cut - felt like the logical next step for a player on the rise.

And when he exploded out of the blocks in August, scoring four goals in his first four European outings, Owls fans could be forgiven for assuming the progression would be seamless.

Gassama looked like the same force of nature who had brightened Wednesday: direct, fearless and playing with the looseness of someone unburdened by expectation.

But as the season has settled, so has the glare of reality. Gassama remains involved, still flashes the talent that made him a Championship standout, yet the sharp edges that once defined his game have softened.

And with Rohl now in the Rangers dugout his trajectory has become unexpectedly complicated.

How Djeidi Gassama is really faring at Rangers after his Sheffield Wednesday departure

For those following from England, the headline numbers may appear respectable enough: six goals in all competitions, regular minutes, and a clear role in the squad.

But delve into the Premiership data and a more nuanced picture emerges. In 1,171 league minutes, Gassama has produced one goal, one assist, and 2.96 xG - a level of output that feels closer to a work-in-progress than the finished article.

His performances since Rohl’s arrival underline that sense of drift rather than decline. Gassama has featured in all 11 matches under the German, completing 90 minutes seven times, and posting performances ranging from strong (vs Dundee, vs Dundee United) to subdued (vs Kilmarnock, vs Hibernian).

What has dipped is the sharpness in the final action. Despite 34 shots and a high involvement in advanced areas, only nine efforts have hit the target. His dribble numbers remain strong - 30 successful attempts at a 52% completion rate - but too often the carry leads nowhere.

If anything, he resembles the early-stage version of the Wednesday player: lively and dangerous, but lacking end product.

Rangers supporters have noted a tendency to hold onto the ball too long, or go to ground too easily, and those EFL hallmarks have translated to Scotland with surprising persistence.

The fundamentals are still promising. He sits above average for goal threat, duels, recoveries and fouls won. He is a player who gets into the right areas far more often than he finishes actions within them.

But at Rangers, where title races and European nights hinge on margins, that distinction becomes more unforgiving.

The Sheffield Wednesday link that is complicating Djeidi Gassama’s Rangers career - Danny Rohl is not getting the best from him

The most intriguing element is the reunion with Danny Rohl.

It was Rohl who turned Wednesday’s trajectory, Rohl who empowered Gassama to play with the verticality and freedom that made him so valuable in a side fighting to consolidate in the Championship. The winger’s upward curve was - at times - inseparable from his manager’s.

And so the assumption was that Rohl’s arrival at Rangers would unlock that version of Gassama again. Instead, his form has plateaued just as the tactical environment has become more rigid.

Rohl’s Wednesday were a project: aggressive, transitional, but pragmatic by necessity. His Rangers, even at this early stage, are more structured, more choreographed, and far less tolerant of inefficiency in wide areas.

Gassama’s strengths - his ability to break shape and destabilise games - are simultaneously what make him difficult to integrate into a system built on discipline.

Those who watched Wednesday closely will know Rohl is not a manager who indulges prolonged dips - his patience is finite and his clarity ruthless.

Michael Smith, Lee Gregory, Marvin Johnson, Michael Ihiekwe and even goalkeeper James Beadle all discovered that he is entirely unafraid to remove players he does not fully trust.

Gassama, then, is operating under a coach who both understands his strengths and will not wait endlessly for refinement. That familiarity places him under a harsher light, not a softer one. Rohl knows exactly what the winger can offer, but equally what he needs to eliminate

That familiarity cuts both ways: opportunity and scrutiny arrive in equal measure.

From the outside, especially for those who watched him grow in the EFL, Gassama still looks like a player with a high ceiling, but he is no longer the unexpected spark in a troubled Owls side. He is a developing forward in a club that expects consistency, end product and tactical clarity.

His story at Rangers isn’t yet stalling, but it is rediscovering the reality that talent alone isn’t enough.

The next phase will determine whether he becomes the fully-formed version of the player Wednesday