Glasgow Rangers summer signing Lassana Coulibaly has struggled for the Ibrox side in recent weeks.
After a very busy January transfer window last season, Rangers’ least inspiring deal on paper appeared to be the loan agreement that saw Sean Goss arrive at Ibrox for the rest of the campaign.
The Gers brought in a number of very good players and the deals appeared to hand Graeme Murty a fantastic chance of overseeing a title challenge after another bright start to his spell in charge of the first-team. But the Goss deal caught many by surprise.
Before his move to Rangers, the central midfielder had made just six senior appearances during his career and none came last season. But after a handful of games for the Gers, it appeared that the deal for Goss was actually a masterstroke.
Some of the Englishman’s passes were just sublime and his free-kick taking ability had made it seem baffling that Queens Park Rangers had barely used him since signing him from Manchester United.
But as the season continued, it started to become apparent why he was a forgotten man at Loftus Road.
His technical ability could not be questioned, but he started to go missing in the more important games. His display in the 3-2 home defeat to Celtic must be considered the turning point in his Ibrox spell.
Suddenly, there seemed to be no attempt to try and make his loan deal permanent despite Murty admitting earlier in the year that he wanted him to extend his stay – comments reported by the Daily Record. He has made one cup appearance for his parent club this term.
Goss’ stint at Rangers has perhaps become relevant again because it appears that one of Steven Gerrard’s surprise signings from the summer may be on his way to enjoying a loan spell at Ibrox that follows an incredibly similar narrative.
After arriving to little fanfare, Lassana Coulibaly quickly established himself as one of the most impressive players in the Gers squad with some sensational form. In comments reported by The Scottish Sun, Gerrard has already suggested that he would like to bring the 22-year-old in on a permanent basis.
But just like Goss, Coulibaly’s form appears to have taken a sizeable dip in the last couple of weeks and he looked well short of his best in the League Cup semi-final at the weekend.
The youngster has more time than Goss did to turn his situation around. But it is surely fair to say that a permanent move to Rangers looks much less of a formality as things stand with his change in form likely to be confusing Gerrard as much as Goss’ must have perplexed Murty last term.
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