Rangers made a mistake on £1.5m sale who is now worth £7.5m.
Rangers made a mistake on a player whose market value has dramatically increased.
In the January transfer window, Glasgow Rangers signed Mohamed Diomande, Oscar Cortes, and striker Fabio Silva.
Adding three young players to the first-team roster could help Philippe Clement compete with Celtic for the Premiership title.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of a healthy connection between Rangers and the transfer market, as it has not been fantastic in the last few years, with money being spent on a wide range of players..
Rangers’ recent transfer record
Under Michael Beale, the Light Blues spent a lot of money on Cyriel Dessers, Sam Lammers, and Danilo last summer, hoping that the trio would propel the club to success.
Seven months later, Lammers is on loan with Utrecht, Danilo is injured, and Dessers has only scored 12 goals since signing.
Beale isn’t the only one who has made blunders with transfers; his predecessor, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, also made a few gaffes.
While the Dutchman did oversee the sales of Nathan Patterson, Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo, bringing in a solid return for all three, he also undersold a few players.
Cedric Itten is a key example. He departed for a relatively small transfer fee due to Van Bronckhorst looking to raise funds, but over the previous 18 months, Itten’s market value has soared.
How much Rangers signed Cedric Itten for
Following the Covid-19-interrupted 2019/20 season, Steven Gerrard spent the summer reinforcing his squad in preparation for a true title challenge, not only to win the 55th league title in the club’s history, but also to prevent Celtic from securing their tenth consecutive crown.
Ianis Hagi, Kemar Roofe, and Bassey all joined the Gers before the season began, but Itten’s presence appeared to have piqued the fans’ interest in the future.
The Swiss international arrived for a fee in the region of £3m, and it looked like a shrewd move, especially considering he had netted 19 goals in just 34 matches for FC St. Gallen the season before.
Cedric Itten’s Rangers statistics
It was always going to be tough for the striker to take the place of Alfredo Morelos in the starting XI and despite starting just nine matches out of the 37 he featured in for the Light Blues, Itten managed to score six goals and grab three assists.
This wasn’t enough to warrant him a place in the side during the start of the 2021/22 campaign, as the centre-forward was sent on loan to German side Greuther Furth – scoring against Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt – before Van Bronckhorst recalled him in January 2022.
The former Feyenoord manager clearly wanted an extra attacking option in his squad and he detailed his reasons behind recalling him early.
“Will I use Cedric? Yes, we called him back as he has different qualities from Morelos and Roofe,” said Van Bronckhorst.
“In that way sometimes a game will need a striker like him.”
It definitely didn’t work out that way, as he only scored twice in the final two months of the season, and the player moved on again that summer.
To free up finances for future acquisitions, Itten was sold for £1.5 million, which was half of what the Gers paid for him two years ago.
It was another horrible piece of transfer business by the Light Blues, and it has come back to punish them, as Itten’s market value has skyrocketed since returning to his birthplace in the summer of 2022.
Cedric Itten’s current market value
The Ibrox side struggled during the first half of the 2022/23 season as they slumped to six successive defeats in the Champions League and, while Itten may not have been the answer, giving him regular game time could have boosted his confidence.
Instead, he hit the ground running for BSC Young Boys in Switzerland, and he eventually finished the season with 23 goals and 12 assists in all competitions, going on to win the double in his homeland.
Not only that, but he ranked second among the squad for goals and assists (23) in the Swiss top flight, along with ranking second for shots per game (2.6), big chances created (seven) and for penalties won (two), as he demonstrated the attacking qualities which he failed to showcase during his spell in Glasgow.
While he may have only scored eight goals in 23 appearances this season, his performances since returning to Switzerland have made the £1.5m transfer fee a wonderful bargain for Young Boys.
According to Football Transfers, the former Gers frontman is now valued at €8.8m (£7.5m) and it is clear the club have endured a slight blunder by letting him leave on the cheap.
If he continues to score at his current rate, then there is no doubt he will attract attention from bigger teams, and they may have to pay a small fortune to get their hands on the goal-scoring machine.
The deal represents yet another poorly constructed exit for a player who was simply not given enough chances to showcase his true worth in Scotland.
Some players may need more time to adjust to the physical demands of Scottish football, and with only 48 appearances (mostly from the bench), there is little opportunity for them to shine.
Young Boys clearly got the better end of the bargain 18 months ago, and ideally Clement can learn from his predecessor’s mistakes, ensuring he seeks reasonable fees for first-team players who want to go.
Itten’s performance at Ibrox has won him a recall to the Swiss national team, where he scored his fifth goal against Andorra in September. This demonstrates that players who leave the club often revert to their previous form.
Leave a Reply