Having inexplicably decided to ditch his successful policy of signing young, fit and hungry players during his Championship year at Rangers, Mark Warburton’s decision to bring in the ‘older guard’ for this season backfired spectacularly.
Loan signings Dominic Ball, Gideon Zalalem and Nathan Oduwa; none of them being older than 20, were all successful to varying degrees and complemented wonderfully the emergence of James Tavernier, Andy Halliday and of course, Barrie McKay.
Rangers won that division, beat Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final and were looking forward to immediately challenging once again for the title. However, when re-enforcements were needed in pre-season Warburton had an alarming change of tack.
Clint Hill, Philippe Senderos, the notorious Joey Barton and the man in question Niko Kranjcar were all signed to the surprise of many. As usual, there was optimism at first, with some of these players, in fact, being stellar names in the English Premier League in the years gone by. However, things did not work out at all.
Barton, rather predictably, imploded and left the club. Senderos has been an unmitigated disaster despite a recent resurgence in form. Clint Hill came in for criticism in the first half of the campaign along with his fellow defenders.
That leaves us with Kranjcar, the best of the bunch on past exploits. His years at Tottenham and Portsmouth were truly top notch. He was a quality and classy player capped 81 times by Croatia and has scored 15 goals at international level too.
With a history like that and at only 32, you would think he could still have lots to offer in this league and that the question of whether to retain him for next season has an obvious answer? Probably the writing is on the wall. Just 9 Premiership appearances this season because of injury doesn’t bode well for starters, neither does a closer look at his most recent history.
Since leaving Spurs for Dynamo Kiev in 2012, Kranjcar has had two loan spells with QPR to re-unite with Harry Redknapp, as well as a very short stay at New York Cosmos last year. Whatever the reasons Kranjcar hasn’t been able to hold on to a regular place in a decent side for 5 years, the fact that it has happened should tell Rangers all they need to know.
Sometimes, rather than looking for something complicated, the simple truth is right in front of them and Niko Kranjcar’s record since he left the Premier League is a shocking one. Rangers should cut and run while they have the chance and give his berth in the squad to a more ambitious, younger and fitter player, just like they did 2 years ago.