With Rangers struggling to break down a disciplined Union Saint-Gilloise side during Tuesday’s Champions League qualifier in Belgium, Giovanni van Bronckhorst came to the conclusion that precision – rather than pace – was needed.
On came Tom Lawrence and Scott Wright; Expert lock-pickers, the both of them. The blunt object that is Fashion Sakala, however, was left festering on the sidelines. Rangers needed a goal. And no one on Van Bronckhorst’s bench scored more than him (12) last season. Still, Sakala didn’t emerge.
Was this proof that Dutchman no longer trusts Sakala to come on and change a game slipping through Gers fingers? The fact that Wright, Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo, Antonio Colak and Malik Tilman were all chosen ahead of him during the most insipid and lifeless of performances away to a side playing their first European game in nearly six decades certainly tells it’s own story.
One without a fairytale ending, as far as Sakala is concerned.
What next for Fashion Sakala at Rangers?
“I haven’t had a meeting with (Van Bronckhorst),” Sakala told The Herald over the weekend.
“I am expecting a meeting any time soon and I hope to hear his views. This is something I am looking forward to because I want to know where I stand. Because I don’t know at the moment.”
Sakala has not kicked a ball in anger during Rangers’ first two games of the 2022/23 season. He was left on the bench away at Livingston too; Another game in which Rangers looked short of ideas until James Tavernier’s fierce free-kick winner late on.
During his debut campaign at Ibrox, Sakala scored 12 goals and set up seven more. A respectable tally, certainly, but one that masks a lot of his flaws. Sakala lacks the physicality, the delicacy or the composure to play as a number nine. He is arguably at his most effective coming in from the left but, unfortunately for him, that is where the talismanic Ryan Kent tends to operate.
If Van Bronckhorst sees Malik Tillman as a left-winger – the former Bayern Munich starlet was their brightest spark against Saint Union-Gilloise – then that could push Sakala even further down the pecking order. As would the potential arrival of Denis Bouanga from St Etienne.
Sakala out, Denis Bouanga in at Ibrox?
According to Le10 Sport, Rangers have made an enquiry about the £4 million-rated Gabon international. Worryingly for Sakala, Bouange is another left-sided forward. A far more rounded one than Rangers’ electric-yet-erratic number 30, for that matter.
“He has incredible qualities,” former St Etienne coach Pascal Dupraz said recently. “The kind of qualities needed to play in the Champions League.
“He is very strong technically.”
Sakala, only a couple of days ago, insisted that there was ‘no need’ for him to consider his future at Ibrox. Now, after another game spent on the bench and with Rangers turning to Bouanga, it’s tempting to wonder if his mind may be about to change.
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