Rangers missed out on star who’s now worth £110m

Glasgow Rangers may have won 3-1 over the weekend to return to winning ways after their shock Scottish Cup defeat last week, but the performance was far from pretty.

Philippe Clement’s side laboured to the victory, which saw Hearts player Jamie McCart score two own goals during the game.

At this stage, it certainly feels as though the Ibrox side are going through the motions, with no clear philosophy being shown on the pitch. Will this be allowed to continue? Or is the Belgian’s time in Glasgow coming to an end?

Things don’t look like they are going to improve anytime soon, and they are as bad, if not worse, than when Michael Beale was in charge between December 2022 and October 2023.

The Englishman wasn’t the right man to lead the Gers, that’s a certainty.

Michael Beale’s spell at Rangers

Beale was Steven Gerrard’s first team coach during his three-and-a-half-year spell in charge of the Gers, and he was widely praised for his tactical approach, which saw the club win their first Premiership crown in a decade.

Beale followed Gerrard to Aston Villa before taking his first steps into management with QPR at the start of the 2022/23 season. When Giovanni van Bronckhorst was sacked in November of that same campaign, Beale was appointed as the new Rangers manager just a couple of weeks later.

He managed the Light Blues for a total of 43 matches, winning 31 and losing eight, averaging 2.26 points per game. He ended his time in charge of the club by winning 72.1% of his games, which ranks him – statistically anyway – as the second-best manager in the club’s history.

Of course, in terms of actual football and the fact he failed to strengthen the team, wasting money on players such as Sam Lammers and Cyriel Dessers, his time in Glasgow was a disaster.

He did sign Nicolas Raskin and Todd Cantwell, however, and the two were arguably his best signings.

Todd Cantwell’s Rangers statistics

Once valued at £40m by Norwich City, Cantwell had fallen down the pecking order at Carrow Road, which allowed the Gers to sign him in January 2023.

Six goals and five assists between February and May 2023 proved that Cantwell was turning into an excellent signing for the club. Someone who could perhaps be the fulcrum of the team ahead of 2023/24.

Unfortunately, while he may have registered 15 goal contributions during his only full season at Ibrox, Cantwell often went long spells without showing enough, and it soon became clear that he wasn’t part of Clement’s plans going forward.

Rangers showed interest in a host of players during Beale’s time in charge. Might things have been different if he was able to sign a couple of players who popped up as targets?

One player who was linked during the January transfer window in 2023 has established himself as one of the best attackers in the Premier League – Cole Palmer.

Rangers’s pursuit of Cole Palmer

Beale was keen on bolstering his squad during the winter window, just weeks after taking the reins at Ibrox.

While Raskin and Cantwell eventually joined, the it was reported that the Light Blues had a loan bid rejected by Manchester City for a then relatively unknown Palmer.

The attacking midfielder had featured only sparingly under Pep Guardiola during the first half of the season, failing to score or assist, but there was no denying his enormous talent.

A loan spell in Scotland could have given Rangers a major boost. Who knows, he might have spurred the club on to a trophy. In the end, the move didn’t materialise and Cantwell was the sole attacking player who joined the club.

Whatever happened to Palmer anyway?

Cole Palmer’s current market value

Palmer helped City win a treble of Champions League, FA Cup and Premier League during the second half of the 2022/23 season, and it appeared as though his future was looking bright at the Etihad.

That summer, a bid of £40m arrived from Chelsea, and it was duly accepted. Securing a fee like this for a player who had featured only 41 times for City looked like it was too good a deal to turn down.

18 months later, Palmer has emerged as one of the best players in the top flight, starring for the Stamford Bridge side under both Mauricio Pochettino and now Enzo Maresca.

Indeed, under the Argentinian, the 22-year-old was perhaps the brightest spark of an otherwise disappointing season. Across all competitions, the Englishman scored 25 goals and grabbed 15 assists, leading the Blues to a sixth-place finish.

In the Premier League, he averaged 3.2 shots per game along with creating 17 big chances and averaging 2.1 key passes per match, showcasing his talents across a range of metrics.

He made the England squad for Euro 2024, going on to score in the final against Spain and this set him up for another excellent season.

At the time of writing, Palmer has registered 20 goal contributions while Guardiola, his former manager, Guardiola, even dubbed the youngster a “machine” following City’s victory over Chelsea earlier this season.

These performances have seen his market value soar since arriving in London for what now seems like a paltry £40m.

Indeed, according to Transfermarkt, Palmer is now worth a staggering €130m (£110m), indicating that Chelsea will stand to make a huge profit on him should they decide to cash in.

Imagine how good he would have been for Rangers if he joined the club on loan two years ago.

Instead, Cantwell was signed. The former Norwich starlet enjoyed several purple patches at the Gers, but rarely demonstrated his true potential.

He is currently back in the Championship with Blackburn Rovers, having left Glasgow last summer.