Way the season ended hurt but that’s given us more strength for this season I believe YOUSSEF CHERMITI ON RIGHTING WRONGS
Youssef ready to embrace the weight of expectation being Gers’ main marksman brings
ITS true weight is only a few ounces but for some strikers, the Rangers No.9 shirt has seemed to drag down on their shoulders like a 10-tonne load.
Back in Gers’ glory days, men like Derek Johnstone, Ally McCoist and Kris Boyd had no problem carrying the goalscoring burden at Ibrox. Nikica Jelavic, Kenny Miller and Dado Prso refused to buckle under it either. But flick back through the history books and there are plenty of others who struggled to stand upright with that responsibility resting on their back. At a record £12million, Tore Andre Flo remains the club’s costliest ever signing but that failed to buy Rangers success. Oleg Salenko and Erik Bo Anderson both joined starstudded Ibrox squads in the 1990s but seldom looked like they belonged in such esteemed company. More recently, Umar Sadiq, Antonio Colak and Amad Diallo have tried and failed to live up to the reputation of the men who wore the jersey before them. The enigmatic Cyriel Dessers scored aplenty but his contribution was good enough only for runners-up prizes. Given the problems of those who have dared to take on the No.9 shirt, Youssef Chermiti might have been better served staying away from it. It looked like the Portuguese frontman was treading the same path as some of his predecessors in the first few months after his arrival from Everton last summer.
The fact the £8.5m fee spent on him is the club’s second highest spend after Flo only increased the pressure. But step by step, week by week, Chermiti has looked more and more like a frontman now relishing the level of expectation that comes with being Rangers’ main marksman. His 15-goal contribution last term couldn’t rescue a disastrous campaign as Gers trudged home third. But there are now raised hopes that a frontline partnership of Chermiti and Lawrence Shankland can
propel the club to better times under Derek McInnes.
“I think that showed my mentality,” the 22-year-old said when discussing his choice of squad number after last year’s switch. “Some people told me not to wear the No.9 because there is a lot of pressure.
“But I said if you don’t live with pressure you don’t get better. I think that showed a little bit of my character.
“Yeah it was tough at the start of the season but I think I had a really good end to the season.
“From January right through I think I had a really good season.
“The first few months were a bit difficult because I was not playing.
“When I was at Everton, I was injured as well. I had some time to settle down. When I was really focused on everything, with no noise or anything like that, I just had to put my work in on the pitch. I showed my quality and there’s more to come
“Now we’re trying to build everything and to go again for the league.
“Of course, I’m excited. As I said, we’re trying to build up everything we couldn’t do last season. We’re so excited for the next season and we’re going for the title.”
Celtic snatched a fifth successive crown on the final day but it was Hearts who inflicted most damage to Gers’ chances by winning early on in the season at Ibrox before dealing out another fatal blow at Tynecastle, just as both sides were making a desperate sprint for the line.
Having contributed significantly to Rangers’ struggles last term, McInnes and Shankland are now the men the Ibrox faithful are pinning their hopes on. And Chermiti is encouraged by what he has seen in the first few days of this week’s warm-weather camp in Spain.
He said: “I think the manager can help us all bring success.
“Everyone knows what the manager did last season. We know him as a player as well. He’s been very good for us.
“He’s been helping us as well. We’re building a good relationship.
“And I think everyone knows Lawrence’s quality. He’s a good finisher. We can help each other. We want to help each other. I don’t know what the fans are thinking to be honest. But we have me, we have Bojan Miovski, we have Ryan Naderi and now Lawrence.
“We’re a strong, strong unit and I think between us four, we have different skills. Between the four of us, we can bring a lot of good things for the team.
“Personally, I prefer to play with two strikers. I feel more confident on the pitch. I think it’s a good way to help us to try to get the title.”
It took Chermiti time to get up and running at Ibrox. It was the end of October when he opened his account against Kilmarnock and he didn’t score again until four days before Christmas.
But a derby double in the New Year Old Firm clash lit the blue touch paper, setting the big frontman off on a regular run of impressive strikes that reached its high point with a sensational overhead kick in a March league clash against Celtic at Ibrox.
However, you could also say that was the zenith of Gers’ entire campaign as a second-half collapse halted their momentum just when it looked like they were destined to catch the leaders. Chermiti said: “Since I was young, I’ve been trying to score goals like that one against Celtic. I scored it once, an overhead kick when I was young. I was 14 and it was in a derby as well. “It’s frustrating it wasn’t enough to win the match. We played a really good game. We scored two goals but we drew.
“The way the season ended, that hurt us a lot last season. But I also think that’s given us more strength for this season with the new signings as well. We’ve had a really good beginning to the transfer window and I hope they can help us to get the title.”