There’s no two ways about it, Glasgow Rangers striker Youssef Chermiti simply had to score.
With the Ibrox side already in the lead at Fir Park following Nicolas Raskin’s early strike, Chermiti was then presented with the chance to double that advantage on the half-hour mark, with the ball falling kindly into his path.
The returning striker only had opposition stopper Calum Ward to beat, yet after choosing to shoot early, he could only fire straight down the keeper’s throat, with his second attempt also deflected wide.
His derby double aside, it’s been a largely miserable first season for Chermiti in Glasgow, with the £8m man still on just four goals across all competitions.
The burden on the ex-Everton man has at least been eased with Ryan Naderi’s deadline day arrival, although the German has plenty to do to avoid heading for the same fate as the club’s recent striker signings.
How Chermiti’s first season compares to former Rangers strikers
The size of the transfer fee hasn’t helped the narrative surrounding Chermiti from the off, although he’s had ample opportunity to quieten the doubters, albeit while failing to do so.
Momentum needs to be built in the first season for any new signing, let alone a striker, with Alfredo Morelos memorably netting 18 goals during his debut 2017/18 campaign, after arriving from Finland.
Morelos’ former teammate, Kemar Roofe, also matched that figure in his own first season at Ibrox in 2020/21, playing a vital role in steering Steven Gerrard’s side to the title.
Even an ageing Jermain Defoe ended his first six months in Glasgow with eight goals from just 20 games, with Chermiti’s four coming from 28 appearances across all fronts.
More recently, too, while both men had their flaws, Antonio Colak and Cyriel Dessers hit the ground running to a degree, scoring 18 and 22 goals, respectively, in their debut campaigns, with Chermiti left with plenty of work to do if he is to get anywhere close to those figures.
|
Debut Rangers season – selected CFs |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Player |
Games |
Goals |
|
Dessers |
54 |
22 |
|
Colak |
39 |
18 |
|
Roofe |
36 |
18 |
|
Miovski* |
33 |
10 |
|
Defoe |
20 |
8 |
|
Itten |
37 |
6 |
|
Chermiti* |
28 |
4 |
|
Lammers |
31 |
2 |
Indeed, the 22-year-old is already in danger of drifting into Sam Lammers or Cedric Itten territory, the latter of whom also only scored four Premiership goals in 2020/21, after arriving that summer.
The die was cast quickly for that pair, with first impressions counting for everything. Chermiti, on current evidence, looks to be heading for a similar pathway.
Rangers sold Chermiti 2.0 who’s now outperforming Naderi
In many ways, what Chermiti has produced at Rangers is to be expected, with a player who – checks notes – failed to score at all at Everton having unsurprisingly found it difficult to get going, even while afforded regular time.
Ibrox flop now looks finished at Rangers after Naderi’s debut
This Rangers flop’s time at Ibrox may already be on borrowed time after the signing of Ryan Naderi.
If it’s any consolation for the struggling striker, even those who had been ‘proven’ before joining the club have also gone on to underwhelm, with the aforementioned Itten an obvious example.
The Swiss marksman was snapped up by Gerrard in 2020 after scoring 36 times in just 63 games in his homeland for St Gallen, supplying a further 11 assists.
Like Chermiti, the then 23-year-old was a relatively youthful addition at the time, although expectations were high, with Gerrard suggesting that the new man was going to be a “big player” for the Light Blues.
Frustratingly, the presence of the likes of Roofe and Morelos left Itten reduced to a bit-part role, with his four goals actually coming from just five starts, albeit while having clearly not done enough to warrant further opportunities from his manager.
After just a year, he was shipped out on loan to Germany, before making a permanent move back to Switzerland to join Young Boys in the summer of 2022, following a six-month return to Ibrox.
In all, his 48 games for the club yielded just eight goals, with Rangers – like they might decide to do with Chermiti – swiftly moving on from what appeared to be a transfer mistake.
Itten, meanwhile, has gone on to flourish in the years since, racking up 48 goals in 128 games for Young Boys, while now starring for Fortuna Dusseldorf in Germany’s second tier.
Operating in the division above Naderi’s former club Hansa Rostock, Itten has actually outperformed the young German, with his nine league goals in Bundesliga 2 eclipsing the eight goals that the 22-year-old racked up earlier this season.
Even last term, the 29-year-old bettered the new Rangers man by scoring eight league goals back at Young Boys, with Naderi, meanwhile, scoring just five league goals for Rostock.
With more league goals in Germany this season than both Chermiti and Bojan Miovski have achieved combined in the Premiership, Itten looks like a different player to the one who was so forgettable in Glasgow.
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