From a player that was so unanimously derided by Rangers fans in his time at the club, it comes as something of a surprise that they should be so undecided on his time now that he has left.
Umar Sadiq – a name that still sends shivers down the spines of many Gers fans has re-emerged in the press recently after the Almeria striker’s stunning form this season – 20 goals and six assists – has seen him linked with a move to Spanish giants Sevilla and a €60million price tag being put on his head.
After reporting on the story earlier in the week, over 100 fans have interacted with a Vital Rangers poll in which we asked whether or not Sadiq had been given a fair crack of the whip by Steven Gerrard with the vote split exactly at 50/50 at the time of writing.
Did Sadiq get a fair crack of the whip at Rangers?
Yes
No
The writing was on the wall early doors for Sadiq though when – with just 26 minutes of competitive action under his belt – the Gers gaffer revealed that he was far from embracing the physical aspect of the Scottish game:
“What we want is the real, aggressive Sadiq. That’s we’ve paid for, that’s what we’ve asked for, that’s what we’ve got in. This is me trying a different way to get it out of him because I’ve tried other ways.”
And after his stumbling performance in the infamous league cup semi-final defeat to Aberdeen, Gerrard said in preparation for another game, with Sadiq available:
“This is a different game, it’s at Ibrox. We have only had a recognised striker on the pitch for 12 minutes over two games so it will be great to have both Morelos and Lafferty available.”
When your manager doesn’t recognise you as being capable of playing your own position it says a lot about how well you are doing in training, you also get the impression that Gerrard had become exasperated at attempts to develop a side to the striker that had seen him brought to the club in the first place.
That side is obviously coming out of him now though as he tears up Spain’s second tier, it’s just a shame he didn’t bother to turn up for Rangers, he might have been handy when we had no other forwards available.