A word of warning to those who may be considering a move away from Scottish Premiership giants Rangers this summer.
The grass, as they say, is not always greener elsewhere. And one wonders if the likes of Ryan Kent and Filip Helander – in their darkest moments – will have been wishing that they did not depart when their contracts expired in July 2023.
Kent supposedly turned down aborted January moves to Lazio and Hull City, and that now feels like a mistake as he continues to fade away on the Fenerbahce bench. Still, Kent’s time in Turkey makes Alfredo Morelos‘ dreadful spell at Santos feel like a success by comparison.
Glen Kamara‘s hopes of playing Premier League football next season are in the balance, while neither Mateusz Zukowski nor Antonio Colak have featured anywhere near as frequently as they would havae liked at Slask Wroclaw and Parma respectively.
Helander, meanwhile, is facing relegation after losing the captain’s armband at Odense Boldklub.
Rangers exit has worked wonders for Fashion Sakala
Fashion Sakala‘s debut season in Saudi Arabia, then, is certainly the exception rather than the rule. Where the likes of Colak, Helander and Morelos have found life difficult post-Glasgow, Sakala is enjoying, not so much a new lease of life – he was one of those who actually impressed under Mick Beale – but certainly the most potent spell of his senior career.
Sakala, in his two seasons in Scotland, scored 12 goals apiece. His best-ever return, meanwhile, was 16, during his time in Belgium with KV Oostende. The jet-heeled Zambian has wasted little time in cruising past that tally in the Middle East, however, Sakala on fire at Al-Fayha.
After returning to haunt his former Rangers coach Steven Gerrard with a one-man destruction of his Al-Ettifaq outfit, Sakala broke the 20 goal barrier for the very first time as Al-Fayha drew 2-2 with Al-Fateh over the weekend. An assist in that very same game took his tally to nine for the season, meaning he is one shy of reaching 30 for ‘goal contributions’.
Considering the biggest criticism that faced Sakala during his time at Ibrox – for all his speed and endeavour, end product was often lacking – a 20-goal season is certainly one in the eye for those who felt the kinks in his game were destined never to be ironed out.
As Saudi website Almowatan points out, Sakala is now officially a record-breaker too. His place in the Al-Fayha history books secured. No player in the club’s top-flight history has ever scored this many goals in a single league campaign.
Former Rangers man is a record-breaker
“I am very thankful to the board for bringing him here,” Vuk Raskovic, the Al-Fayha coach, told the Glasgow Times recently. “We had long conversations with Rangers to bring him and, in the end, he came. I’m glad he did.
“He enjoys playing football and he always plays with a smile. I’ve told him he must score more goals. But I saw his hug with (former Rangers boss) Steven Gerrard and joked with him ‘ah, now I know why you didn’t score!’”
On a weekend in which Rangers’ hopes of re-claiming the Scottish Premiership crown all-but went up in smoke during a calamitous first-half at Celtic Park, Philippe Clement could have done with being able to call upon a forward of Sakala’s intensity, desire and new-found ruthlessness.
Rangers’ loss, however, is Al-Fayha’s gain, and all to the tune of just £3 million.
