If Davie Selke was starting every single week for Hertha Berlin, a regular fixture in one of Europe’s top-five leagues, then you could probably understand his reasoning behind turning down a summer move to Rangers (BILD).
But when you consider that the striker has played just 30 minutes of football across Hertha’s last four Bundesliga matches – not including the 1-1 draw with Mainz he missed through illness – then questions deserve to be asked.
Perhaps Selke feels he can win over new Hertha coach Sandro Schwarz. It’s not as if the club’s number one striker – Wilfried Kanga – is ripping up the division after all. Perhaps the former Germany U21 international feels that, with his contract expiring next year, he’d be better off staying put for the time being.
You only have to look at Aaron Ramsey, for instance, to realise the power that comes with being a free-agent. Especially when negotiating contracts with prospective employers.
But if Selke feels that clubs of the size and stature of Rangers will come again calling next summer, he may be mistaken. If it already seems that the Europa League runners-up can aim a little higher, then that feeling will only be exacerbated should the 27-year-old spend another season gathering dust on the sidelines.
Hertha Berlin striker Davie Selke may regret Rangers snub
Selke has scored just 11 league goals since the start of the 2018/19 season, after all; falling some way short of the expectations set by those who tipped him to become Germany’s next great centre-forward. The new Miroslav Klose perhaps.
Free-agent or not, another season wasted on the bench will do little to convince a Rangers fanbase already frustrated with a lack of quality recruitment that he would represent anything like an upgrade on Alfredo Morelos or Antonio Colak.
“(Selke is) one of only a few players who still embodies the classic striker. Big, fast, dynamic and always dangerous,” Ralf Rangnick said in 2015; his RB Leipzig side fighting off competition from the likes of Real Madrid to sign the Werder Bremen wonderkid.
“He has shown his qualities in the Bundesliga as well as for the various Germany junior teams.”
Seven years on, those ‘qualities’ have become more and more difficult to discern.
Rangers would have given Selke the chance to fight for silverware again. The chance to make his mark on the biggest of stages. To thrive away from the glare of the Bundesliga. The chance to kick-start a career stuck in a seemingly never-ending state of standstill.
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