Rangers brought in striker Florian Kamberi on loan from Hibernian on transfer deadline day but former Ibrox midfielder Barry Ferguson believes that his old club should have signed a different player from Easter Road.
Ferguson was speaking on the PLZ Soccer podcast and he feels that Christian Doidge would have been a better acquisition from Jack Ross’ squad than the 24-year-old Switzerland-born striker, whose parent club travel to Ibrox on Wednesday night in the Premiership.
After seeing Doidge score for Hibernian as they came from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 against St Mirren on Saturday, the ex-Rangers captain told the PLZ Soccer podcast [via Daily Record]: “I seen the highlights. St Mirren were good for their 2-0 up to the stage where they allowed Hibs back into the game with Scott Allan scoring the goal. And then the guy who couldn’t score the first three or four months of the season.
“That’s a great header, I watched it, his movement in the box was great and a great finish. I think Rangers maybe took the wrong one.”
When looking at the respective scoring records of the two strikers in recent games and over the course of the season, it’s quite understandable why Ferguson has championed the case of Doidge over Kamberi.
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The Welsh forward has struck 15 goals for Hibernian in the current campaign from 30 appearances (0.5 goals per game) and 2,323 minutes of game-time (one goal every 154.87 minutes). He has struck nine Premiership goals, scoring in five consecutive league games in November and early December, and has scored six times in five matches since the winter break. That hot streak included a hat-trick in a 4-2 Scottish Cup replay win over runaway Championship leaders Dundee United. [via TransferMarkt]
By contrast, Kamberi has managed just eight goals in 28 matches so far this season (0.29 goals per game) and, with 1,854 minutes on the pitch, he has averaged a goal every 231.75 minutes, a significantly inferior return to Doidge. Only three of the 24-year-old’s goals have been scored in the Premiership, with his most recent strike coming against Aberdeen two months ago. While he did score five times in Hibernian’s run to the Betfred Cup semi-finals, four of those goals came against opponents from outside the top flight. [via TransferMarkt]
Doidge has a far higher goals tally than Kamberi, as well as a better goals-per-minute ratio and greater tendency to score against Premiership opposition, and has been in the better form of the two in recent weeks. On that basis, Ferguson’s suggestion that the Welsh striker ought to have been the man in Rangers’ sights on deadline day is a fair one.
Rangers fans, do you think Ferguson is right in saying that Doidge would have been a better signing from Hibernian than Kamberi? Join in the discussion by commenting below!
