The Daily Record has begun the task of relaunching Rabbi Matondo.
So far the former Schalke winger has had a disastrous time at Ibrox, failing to make the bench for either of the recent defeats from Celtic.
The realisation that Ryan Kent is leaving coupled with a 15 minute outing against St Mirren has changed the landscape with gushing praise flowing the way of the Welshman.
When he was signed in a £3m Ross Wilson deal there were immediate reminders that he is faster than Usain Bolt but on the pitch his performances made fans wince, especially with rumours of £28,000 a week wages surfacing.
In trademark fashion the Record has dropped in a couple of mentions of Vincent Kompany, dug up Matondo’s captain from Cercle Brugge last season and claimed that the Ibrox flop was wanted by the top Belgian sides before opting for Ibrox.
Schalke were happy to take a £6m hit on his transfer fee to get Matondo out the building, it is highly unlikely that any Belgian club would match the wages on offer from Ibrox.
The Record reports:
Hannes van der Bruggen always thought Rabbi Matondo would make the perfect Kompany man for Anderlecht.
And the Cercle Brugge skipper is adamant the forgotten Ibrox ace can still do the business for Rangers. Van der Bruggen spent 10 months playing beside the Welsh winger during last year’s season-long loan from Schalke, a spell that saw Matondo emerge as the Jupiler Pro League’s hottest import.
The speedster’s performances created such a stir in the Belgian market that all the country’s top clubs were queuing up to do a deal.
His Cercle captain reckoned the 22-year-old would have been an ideal acquisition for domestic giants Anderlecht and even pitched a proposed hook up with Manchester City legend Vincent Kompany, who at that point was in charge of the Brussels big guns.
In the end, it was Rangers who successfully negotiated a £2.5million fee to bring Matondo to Scotland but that hasn’t been much return on that investment so far for the Ibrox side.
Boss Michael Beale admitted Matondo has been suffering a “crisis of confidence” since moving to Glasgow but Van der Bruggen is in no doubt his former team-mate can still be a significant asset for Gers.
“I always felt Anderlecht should have signed Rabbi,” the Cercle midfielder told Record Sport. “At that time, Vincent Kompany was there and I had a feeling that he really would fit into they style.
“Under Kompany, they played brilliant football with quick circulation of the ball and I told Rabbi he would really fit in well there. I know there were some teams from Belgium interested in him and I told Rabbi that he had the perfect profile to be a big success in our league.”
Matondo is under contract until May 2026, in November he failed to make the 26 man Wales squad for the World Cup Finals in Qatar.
No money
So the Record’s Ibrox PR man Andy Newport is straight on the phone trying to get anybody to sing the praises for a dud because he provided an assist against St Mirren
In the same paper today , another Ibrox PR muppet Fraser Wilson telling us all that Kent , a player that they’ve hyped up for years for a big money transfer not getting a game due to injury and heading off for nowt can be a good thing
Newport doing his the Rangers scoop bit for the cause ! Matondo’s wages would choke a Hippo ,so they have to get rid of him for the plethora of £5 million pound superstars all desperately lining up to sign for the young clumpany .
Transliterated from Scotland’s daily record of plummeting sales: Belgian teams liked him but didn’t think he was worth the wages, which makes him next season’s superstar.
He could probably play at his level with????clyde,if he was any good