Glasgow Rangers ran out of patience with Michael Beale, and he was relieved of his duties just ten months into his reign at the Ibrox side.
His sacking didn’t come as a surprise, as the 43-year-old led the Gers to just eight wins across their opening 14 matches in all competitions while failing to qualify for the Champions League along with slipping to an underwhelming Old Firm defeat against Celtic.
With a plethora of names linked with the vacant role, Philippe Clement was announced as the new boss recently and his calm, yet no nonsense approach appears to be an ideal fit for the club, especially with a solid debut win under his belt.
Hibernian were swept aside in Glasgow on the weekend 4-0 and the performance was a marked improvement from what the supporters were used to from Beale, who failed to inspire much confidence with a distinct lack of playing style or tactical identity.
Clement will need to work with the current group of players for now, and he certainly seemed to get a tune out of them against the Easter Road side, but will this continue?
Some of Beale’s summer arrivals have yet to light up Ibrox so far, with Cyriel Dessers scoring just four goals across 16 matches and has failed to live up to his £4.5m price tag.
Sam Lammers is also another name who has yet to showcase his true talents in Scotland, despite costing £3m from Serie A side Atalanta in the summer.
A fresh start could be just what these two players require in order to hit the ground running and the next few matches will be crucial with regard to how effective they can be under Clement.
How has Sam Lammers performed at Rangers this season?
Following the end of the 2022/23 campaign, Beale saw the likes of Ryan Kent, Scott Arfield and Alfredo Morelos depart Ibrox due to their contracts expiring and the need for attacking replacements was paramount during the summer.
Lammers became one of his first signings and while he had featured mainly as a centre-forward for Atalanta, Eintracht Frankfurt and Feyenoord in the past, Beale sought to drop him slightly deeper – as a number 10 ideally – in order to bring the best out of his technical ability.
The Dutchman had scored only six goals in all competitions across the previous three seasons and this record hardly boosted the mood of the Ibrox faithful surrounding his move, but with a summer rebuild in progress, trust was placed in Beale.
Fast-forward a few months and this trust appears to have been misplaced as Lammers has struggled to cope with the demands of playing for the Light Blues.
The 26-year-old has played 17 matches since the start of the season, yet has managed to score just once, while grabbing a solitary assist and this is not the form you would associate with a player who cost £3m to sign.
The former QPR boss made some questionable decisions in the transfer market and while his summer arrivals have come under various degrees of scrutiny, some of the players he sold could have made a bigger impact than Lammers.
Antonio Colak appears to be enjoying a new lease of life away from the Gers at Parma, and he could have still offered something that Lammers and Dessers have struggled with so far – goals.
How much did Rangers sell Antonio Colak for?
The Croatian striker joined the club under Giovanni van Bronckhorst and enjoyed a stellar spell under the former Feyenoord coach, scoring 14 goals before the season was halted due to the 2022 World Cup.
Van Bronckhorst stated that Colak was “experienced” while journalist Josh Bunting even claimed that the frontman “has everything” following his excellent start.
While rather limited in terms of speed and mobility, Colak was always in the right place at the right time and this clinical nature prevented Rangers from performing worse than they did.
Following Van Bronckhorst’s sacking in November last year, the 30-year-old failed to fit into Beale’s system while scoring just another four goals for the club, and it appeared as though he could be on his way out after just one season in Glasgow.
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Rangers ultimately accepted a bid of £2.5m from the Italian outfit and this represented a solid profit on the £1.8m that the Light Blues shelled out on him just a year prior.
What happened to Antonio Colak?
In truth, an offer of £2.5m was too good to turn down for a player who has now turned 30, yet the Light Blues have missed his ruthlessness in front of goal during the first few months of the season.
Colak has played nine games for Parma so far this term and has managed to score three goals in Serie B as he aims to lead the club back to Serie A.
The former PAOK striker currently sits third across the Parma squad for goals in the second tier, while also ranking fourth for shots per game (1.2) and third for scoring frequency (a goal every 101 minutes) which indicates that he is enjoying a solid start to life in Italy.
His goal tally means he has outscored Lammers this season and while the Dutchman has recorded 3.2 shots per game, showing a willingness to get on the scoresheet, the fact he ranks in a lowly eighth position in the squad for scoring frequency (a goal every 564 minutes) suggests that he is far from being a reliable option in the final third.
Colak didn’t stand much of a chance with Beale still being in charge of the Light Blues and a move seems to have revitalised the player as he approaches the twilight years of his career.
There is no doubt that he is outscoring Lammers, however, and his knack for finding the back of the net from close range may have given the Gers a better start to the current season.
If he continues his current form, the Ibrox side could look back and regret letting him move on, especially as he may have shone in Clement’s tactical system.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing though and the onus now is for Lammers to vastly improve and begin to demonstrate his considerable talents to the supporters.
