Rangers must rue selling £6m “left-footed Yaya Toure”

Back in their favourite competition, can the sound of the Europa League anthem in Govan spark Rangers’ season into life?

Fair to say, the start of the Russell Martin era has gone, frankly, disastrously, with the Light Blues yet to win a Premiership match in five attempts, their worst start since 1978, thereby sat second bottom of the table.

They did at least beat Hibernian 2-0 in the League Cup quarter-finals on Saturday, thereby setting up a semi-final showdown with Celtic at Hampden in November, a result that will keep the universally unpopular Martin in a job, for another few days at least.

Now, the Gers will commence their Europa League campaign with a visit from Genk on Thursday night; they’ll also host Roma, Braga and Ludogorets Razgrad in the league phase, with away trips to Sturm Graz, Brann, Ferencváros and Porto on their schedule too.

Last season, Rangers finished eighth in the inaugural league phase, reaching the quarter-finals of the Europa League, continuing their love affair with Thursday night European action, having got all the way to the final of course as recently as 2022.

If Martin’s team are going to make a winning start against Genk, he needs to make his best player a central pillar, but just imagine if Rangers still had one key man in their squad, sold under Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

Nicolas Raskin’s importance to Rangers

Nicolas Raskin was Rangers’ undisputed best and most important player last season, underlined by the fact that he was named both Players’ Player of the Year as well as Supporters’ Player of the Year.

Thus, any new manager would want to build the team around the Belgian international, well, except for Martin it would seem.

The midfielder was left on the bench for Champions League qualifiers against Viktoria Plzeň and Club Brugge, not included in the matchday squad at all for games against Celtic and Hearts, the latter a 2-0 defeat, with presenter Darrell Currie perplexed why any manager would choose to leave their “best player in the stand”.

Thus, after seemingly settling their differences, Raskin returned to Martin’s lineup against Hibs at the weekend and, to the surprise of no one, made all the difference, heading home the opening goal and putting in an all-round excellent performance.

Thus, the 24-year-old has to be considered simply undroppable going forward, set to partner Mohamed Diomandé at the base of midfield on Thursday, but just imagine if Rangers still had the “left-footed Yaya Touré” to complete this trio.

What happened to the forgotten Rangers hero

Back in the summer of 2019, despite reported interest from plenty of Premier League clubs, free agent Joe Aribo decided to join Rangers, convinced to move north of the border by manager Steven Gerrard, following the expiration of his contract at Charlton Athletic.

Well, the midfielder marked his Ibrox debut with a goal against St Joseph’s in a Europa League qualifier, bagging 26 goals and 25 assists for the club in total, winning a Premiership title and the Scottish Cup.

Speaking in 2021, Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa, who played alongside Aribo at the Valley, labelled him a “left-footed Yaya Touré”, adding that his “languid style [is] fairly unique”, praising his “great feet​​​​​​​” and fantastic “ability”.

Then manager Gerrard agreed, asserting that Aribo had “the world at his feet”, adding that he was “outstanding from start to finish” following a League Cup victory over East Fife in August 2019, shortly after his arrival.

The Nigerian international’s historic moment in a Rangers jersey came in the 2022 Europa League Final, breaking the deadlock against Eintracht Frankfurt at Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán, as the Gers were heartbreakingly beaten on penalties in Seville.

This would prove to be his last goal for the club, sold to Southampton for around £6m soon after, and his career has not quite turned out as many forecast it would.

The table below documents his season-by-season performances.

First and foremost, worth acknowledging that Aribo has not played a single minute for Southampton this season, completely frozen out by manager Will Still, initially due to transfer uncertainty but, now that the window has shut, he is yet to be reintegrated.

When he has been on the field for the Saints, he has registered only nine goals and a solitary assist for the club, despite getting into double figures for combined goals and assists during each of his three seasons in Glasgow.

Thus, Aribo surely regrets moving to the South Coast back in 2022, given that Southampton have been a yo-yo club since his arrival, and just imagine if this current Rangers team had him in his prime; he would make such an enormous difference alongside the likes of Raskin.

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