Before Kevin Nisbet’s first international goal had even hit the back of the net you just knew what was coming.
The Hibernian striker has been linked with Rangers in the past, both when he was at Dunfermline and at Raith Rovers, and there were more calls for Steven Gerrard to take a second look at the 24-year old following his strike against the Netherlands.
I don’t think he should, and here’s why.
He played 44 times for Hibs last season to get his 18 goals having featured in just under 3500 minutes, for perspective, Cedric Itten, who many fans have already – ridiculously – written off, has a better goal contribution record in his 1150 minutes and the vast majority of his playing time has come from off the bench.
For those of you that love your stats, Itten works out at a goal or assist every 0.75 games whilst Nisbet is below 0.65, again, given a run of games, you’d expect the Switzerland international to be more productive, to put it simply he has nine goals and assists in 12 full games.
Nisbet is also played as a central striker and rarely has to face teams sitting with ten men in the box, Itten has only started four games as a centre forward all season, Gerrard usually deploying him off the right-hand side of attack where his work rate is also hugely important – something the Hibs man has had held against him at times and one of the reasons he spent a period on the bench this season.
There is also the “Rangers tax”, he was valued at over £3million in January, he now has an international goal to his name, is he really worth more than what we paid for Itten, or Kemar Roofe or Ianis Hagi? You get my point.
It’s almost as if people have forgotten about the signing of Fashion Sakala, who also has a better strike rate than Nisbet incidentally.
We didn’t get to where we are now by spending upwards of £4m on a player who would be – at best – fourth choice. There is a reason we didn’t sign the likes of Lewis Moult, Lyndon Dykes and now Kevin Nisbet, they aren’t good enough to wear the famous Light Blue shirt, it’s just as well Ross Wilson is in charge of recruitment and not us…