Rangers sign Stewart on two-year deal
● Attacker lands two-year Ibrox deal at age of 29, five years after playing part-time
Greg Stewart has completed his move to Rangers, signing a two-year deal with the club he played for as a youth.
The 29-year-old forward wrapped up the transfer after his Birmingham City contract expired.
Stewart made just six starts and 16 substitute appearances for the English Championship side, spending most of his threeyear contract back in Scotland on loan with Aberdeen and Kilmarnock.
Stewart hit five goals in two spells with the Dons, where he was mainly utilised out wide, and scored eight goals in 16 games for Kilmarnock in between his Pittodrie stints.
A Rangers statement read: “This will be a return of sorts for the Stirlingborn player as he began his footballing career in the Rangers Academy.”
Stewart began his professional career with a fouryear spell as a part-time player with Cowdenbeath before joining Dundee in 2014, where he flourished and was named on the PFA Scotland player of the year shortlist in both seasons.
The skilful forward joins former Motherwell winger Jake Hastie and ex-kilmarnock wide man Jordan Jones in joining Rangers this summer. In addition experienced midfielder Steven Davis has made his loan move from Southampton permanent.
Not many players land their dream move at 29. It’s taken Greg Stewart a while to get to Rangers, the club he supported as a boy. No one can claim he has not put the work in.
Like Scott Bain at Celtic, his tale is a heartening one. It underlines that playing parttime football in your early twenties does not necessarily mean you have missed the boat. Nor does seeing a lucrative transfer to England go sour.
Stewart, as recently as five years ago, had just finished a season combining playing for Cowdenbeath while working at Grangemouth refinery. Bain, meanwhile, was a brick layer while at Alloa Athletic after being released by Aberdeen. Given another chance at full-time football by Dundee, Bain has just finished a season where he won the treble with Celtic and also made his competitive debut for Scotland.
Stewart arrived at Dundee at the same time as Bain. He had finally become a full-time footballer having feared his hopes had been extinguished when being released as a youth player by both Rangers and Hearts. He got his love back for the game playing for Syngenta Juveniles in Grangemouth and started turning heads again after joining the senior ranks with Cowdenbeath.
Dundee manager Paul Hartley signed Stewart on a precontract in April 2014. The Dens Park side earned promotion to the top flight the following month and Stewart handled the step up with ease. One goal, scored against Ross County in his second season at Dens Park, saw him bamboozle three defenders before stroking into the far corner of the net with his favoured left foot. Footage shows teammate Nick Ross standing looking at him in awe with his hands on his head.
Stewart signed for Birmingham City in the summer of 2016 after two successful seasons with Dundee, where he was twice named on the shortlist for the PFA Scotland Player of the Year Award. He had already started a third season with Dundee and so did not join his new team-mates at St Andrew’s until August. Crucially, it meant he missed the start of pre-season training and he took a while to get up and running in what was another jump up in quality.
When he finally broke into the side he encountered chaos in the form of manager upheaval. In his first season at the club he had to try to impress three different managers. Gary Rowett, who signed him, was sacked in December to be replaced by Gianfranco Zola, who in turn was replaced in April by Harry Redknapp.
“It didn’t go as I planned at Birmingham and I didn’t play as much as thought I would have. Three managers in one season didn’t help either,” he said after joining Aberdeen on loan the following summer.
“There were a lot of changes – a change of formation, didn’t play wingers. When Gianfranco Zola came in he didn’t play wingers and I struggled to get in squads.”
Stewart will hope another world star of the game in Steven Gerrard can see him perform to his potential on a regular basis and while the pressure is very much on him. Remarkably, while his CV confirms he stayed at Birmingham City for three years, and it’s where he joins Rangers on a two-year deal from, he played only 22 times for the English club and did not score.
Most of the time was spent back in Scotland, most productively at Kilmarnock in the first half of last season. He flourished under Steve Clarke and was given a roving role alongside Eamonn Brophy. He scored eight goals in just 16 appearances at Rugby Park, including a wonderful solo effort on his debut at Pittodrie of all places. Birmingham recalled him in January before sending him on loan again – to Aberdeen, where he had spent the 2017-18 season.
He never quite reached the heights there again but still provided glimpses of the exciting player he can be. Brophy made his Scotland debut last weekend against Cyprus and there’s no doubt Clarke, the new national manager, will be watching Stewart carefully.
It will be a new experience for Stewart, who will have more than 40,000 fans to impress every second weekend. They will take a dim view if he disappears from games, as happened on occasion last season with Aberdeen. But when he is on form and running at defenders with the ball at his feet, there are few more thrilling sights in Scottish football.