Rangers: Gio van Bronckhorst must wield his axe on Cedric Itten | OneFootball

Rangers have had a number of success stories in recent years in the transfer window as they have brought some terrific talent to Ibrox.

The likes of Alfredo Morelos, Ryan Kent, Joe Aribo and Glen Kamara are all first-team stars who were signed from elsewhere to improve the squad and played pivotal roles in securing the Premiership title last season.

Unfortunately, some players simply do not make the grade in Glasgow. Not every transfer is a success and some fall by the wayside instead of becoming a star like Kent.

Not good enough

One player who falls into the unfortunate category is striker Cedric Itten. Based on the evidence of his Gers career so far, the £10k-a-week earning ace is not good enough for Rangers and Van Bronckhorst must finally wield his axe in the summer – allowing him to leave on a permanent basis.

Should Itten have been sold in January?

Yes

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No

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The Dutch head coach recalled him from his loan spell with Greuther Furth in January and claimed that he offered something “different” at the top end of the pitch. However, the biggest difference between him and Morelos is their respective quality in the final third.

In the Premiership this season, Itten has zero goals and zero assists in four appearances, whilst he has also lost a whopping 73% of his individual duels. This suggests that he is a lightweight off the ball who also offers no cutting edge. His Colombian teammate, meanwhile, has 11 goals and five assists in 20 starts as he has hit a rich vein of form this term.

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Itten was given the nod to start against Livingston and Ross County but failed to contribute directly to a goal in either match. Van Bronckhorst handed him a huge opportunity to show that he is a viable option for the Gers in the Premiership as an alternative to Morelos but the drop-off in quality, as shown by the statistics, is far too steep.

This came after his previous spell in the side under Steven Gerrard where he scored four goals in 30 Premiership outings. He is simply not at the level Rangers require their first-team strikers to be and he must be sold at the end of the campaign. The club must cash in on him ahead of next season and look to bring in a replacement who could put more pressure on El Bufalo throughout the campaign or at least do a respectable job when filling in for him at times.