“Penalty box poacher” – Gers striker link gets seal of approval from analyst

Rangers link to Nigerian international Stephen Odey is one to get excited about, he’s just completed a season where he has a goal or assist every two games with experience of playing in several European leagues and in continental competition.

Now, I’d be lying if I said I watched much Danish football so, in terms of analysis, who better to go to than Patrick Caskie who has provided scouting reports for both The Rangers Review and This is Ibrox.

Rangers and Celtic double is a red flag but doesn’t guarantee falsehood. Odey performed well for a midtable side and was able to scale domestic output in the UECL. Randers just took up the purchase option for Odey of €600k, so the rumoured asking price of €4m seems lofty. https://t.co/nTOcnzmAIJ pic.twitter.com/O2sRe2RDQq

— Patrick Caskie (@patrickcaskie) June 19, 2022

Writing on his Twitter page, Caskie ran the numbers and concluded that he could well be a decent option but disagreed with allnigeriasoccer.com in that he is being targeted as a replacement for Alfredo Morelos:

“Rangers and Celtic double is a red flag but doesn’t guarantee falsehood. Odey performed well for a mid-table side and was able to scale domestic output in the UECL.

“Randers just took up the purchase option for Odey of €600,000, so the rumoured asking price of €4million seems lofty. Must preface that this is a very preliminary evaluation but seems to be a penalty-box poacher, an instinctive but inconsistent finisher, strong with both feet, a good runner but a bit erratic when he does so with the ball at his feet. Strong xG – expected goals – output relative to team strength.

“Definitely a rotation option and I doubt this move has any permutations on Morelos’s future, more so a contingency for Roofe or an Itten replacement.”

As Caskie touched on, it’s a strange situation in that Randers are signing Odey from Genk with the intention of cashing in on him immediately, providing them with a potential profit of nearly £3.5m in the process. This could make negotiating easier in terms of an upfront fee, however, Celtic’s reported interest could cancel this out if they try to play us off against one another.

The initial story claimed that Ross Wilson has already begun talks about a move so we might have our noses in front and his statistics are certainly encouraging as is his profile and experience.

I whole heartedly agree with Patrick, I think that this is the type of player we need to supplement what we already have with a view to developing his all round game similar to the way that we have done with Morelos – if he turns out to be half as good as El Bufalo, it will be money well spent.