Cyriel Dessers admitted last week he plans to hold talks with the Rangers bosses ahead of a potential switch to Italy, France or Spain before the window closes.
La Liga outfit Leganes are returning to the table, three-and-a-half years after they missed out at the eleventh hour.
Dessers has lost his place to Hamza Igamane. He’s even slipped behind Danilo in the pecking order. That Fraserburgh clash represented his first start of 2025.
And, while he may have walked off with the matchball under his arm, the former Feyenoord striker will not be too enamoured by the prospect of spending his final few years at this level turning out against lower-league opposition while watching on enviously as Igamane starts at Old Trafford this Thursday.
Ross McCormack prefers Rangers striker Cyriel Dessers to Celtic’s Adam Idah:
Yet, while Dessers remains a divisive presence amongst many of the Rangers supporters, plenty in the media have grown to admire his never-say-die spirit. His ability to clamber back to his feet again and again after misses that would knock the confidence of less resilient footballers.
Now, Ross McCormack accepts that, with Dessers seven years older than Celtic hitman Adam Idah, it would be foolish to pick the former over the latter if he was building his own strikeforce.
But, if both strikers had the same amount of candles on their cake, the Rangers academy graduate would select Dessers every day of the week over a player who became Celtic’s £9 million record signing – albeit briefly – last summer.
“I think, right now with Idah being the age he is, I would favour Idah,” McCormack admits. “But if you asked me, if the two of them were 25 or 26, I would take Dessers.”
Idah has scored just eight goals in 31 Celtic appearances since turning his initial loan deal into a permanent transfer. Dessers has double that amount, albeit in two more games and with a hat-trick against Fraserburgh inflating his tally.
Ross McCormack remains a committed member of the Cyriel Dessers fanclub, however, even admitting a few months ago that he prefers the one-time Eredivisie Golden Boot winner over fellow Dutch football export Danilo.
“I don’t think he’s amazing. I don’t think he’s by any stretch of the imagination amazing,” McCormack said. “But if you offered me Dessers or Danilo, I take Dessers all day long.
“I think he’s strong, tenacious. Yeah, he’ll miss the odd chance but…”
Kris Boyd thinks Rangers have Dessers ‘conundrum’:
Just to finish off that sentence, Dessers ‘will miss the odd chance’, yes, but he never lets that get him down.
A tally of 38 goals across a season-and-a-half as a Rangers player, meanwhile, is still a pretty healthy return for a man more renowned for squandering opportunities than he is for taking them.
“He’s obviously been linked with moves away in January but that will do his confidence the world of good because Igamane is starting games and scoring goals,” Boyd said between Dessers’ fine solo effort against Aberdeen and his Fraserburgh treble.
“When you look at Cyriel Dessers, he’s went form being first-choice to now third. There’s no getting away from it. When you find yourself third-choice… He’s at an age where he will want to be playing football.
“We know Rangers will want to get the money in to maybe strengthen another position [but] you can’t leave yourself short on strikers though.
“I don’t know [if they should sell Dessers]. It’s a conundrum, that one. He doesn’t seem to be one with a bad attitude. Sometimes, if you have been a first-team regular and you find yourself out of the team, you spit your dummy out.
“But he’s come on, he’s got himself a goal. I don’t know, if there’s a decent offer…”
