Rangers already had their own Raskin before GvB sold him in 2022.
GGlasgow Rangers have experienced mixed results in the transfer market in recent years, pulling off a few stunning coups and suffering major setbacks.
Former Light Blues manager Michael Beale signed Sam Lammers and Jose Cifuentes to permanent contracts last summer. During the recent January transfer window, Philippe Clement loaned both players out.
In the meantime, since joining the Scottish powerhouses throughout the previous 13 months or so, players like Todd Cantwell, Jack Butland, and Abdallah Sima have all established themselves as important contributors.
However, Beale is not the first or the last Rangers manager to make mistakes in the transfer market. Actually, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, the man he succeeded, was not above making mistakes.
At the beginning of 2022, the Dutch head coach made the terrible decision to break ways with the gifted maestro Juninho Bacuna. The midfielder is an improvement over Nicolas Raskin, who Beale signed a year later to cover that midfield void.
Juninho Bacuna’s time with Rangers
In the summer of 2021, Steven Gerrard and Ross Wilson made a move to sign the teenage talent from English team Huddersfield Town for a two-year contract.
The former Liverpool midfielder called Bacuna a “big talent” and a “powerful” jewel, emphasizing the need for patience in order to ensure that he can fully realize his potential at Ibrox.
Van Bronckhorst was brought in to replace Gerrard in November 2021 after the unfortunate decision to leave Scotland and join Aston Villa in the Premier League.
Since Bacuna was sold to Birmingham in January 2022, it appears that the former head coach of Feyenoord was not ready to exercise the patience that the man he succeeded felt was necessary to bring out the most in the lively midfield player.
That followed the Curacao international’s six appearances and one start in the Scottish Premiership during the first half of the 2021–2022 season for the giants of Scotland.
Despite playing for a short amount of time—just six games—he managed to complete 86% of his passes and score one goal. This indicates that there were encouraging indicators from his performances.
After just two months of working together, Van Bronckhorst chose to part ways with the gifted jewel, giving him little opportunity to consistently demonstrate his abilities.
Around halfway through the 2021–2022 season, Birmingham moved in to sign him, and Bacuna later revealed that one of the reasons he left the Scottish team was the “opportunity” to play matches.
Beale’s swoop to sign Nicolas Raskin
After the club opted to sell the midfield player a year ago, Beale concluded that the Gers were lacking a strong number eight who could play at the top of the pitch and hold his own defensively.
This prompted a transfer in January of last year for Standard Liege whiz Nicolas Raskin, for an alleged sum of approximately £1.75 million, on a permanent deal.
The Belgian gem could have an influence both on and off the ball, as seen by his four assists and 58% duel success rate in 16 Pro League games played during the first half of the 2022–2023 season.
The aforementioned table illustrates how the 22-year-old midfielder found it difficult to establish himself right away in Glasgow due to his meagre defensive performance in physical encounters and lack of offensive contributions.
As you can also see, he has marginally improved this season, contributing one more goal and 0.8 more tackles and interceptions combined per game for the team, in addition to having a higher duels success percentage.
Despite his lackluster performance at Ibrox, 22-year-old Raskin still has plenty of time left to develop and perform better under Clement in the future.
But based on Bacuna’s performances for Birmingham, especially this season, it appears that van Bronckhorst mishandled the team’s improved Raskin a year before Beale moved quickly to recruit him.
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