PROFIT OF DOOM DON’T SELL THE FANS SHORT
Gers would be mad to flog Kent for £10million – he’s their go-to guy for craft and graft
Leeds for the 23-year-old and I’ve heard a few folk now saying it might make sense for the club to cash in. But I’d bet my life that Steven Gerrard isn’t one of them.
Take £10m for Kent and bring in three new players? What planet are these guys on?
Gerrard could spend the whole lot on just one new arrival and it wouldn’t be enough to replace like with like.
We’re talking here about a seriously talented football player and when I look at him I see someone who has not yet fulfilled all of his potential.
Rangers would be crazy to even contemplate letting him go at that price because he’s a £20m player in the making and I truly believe he’s ready to take his game to another level.
I watched the 0-0 draw at Livingston on Sunday and Kent was the only bright spark who was trying to make things happen.
When too many others were passing the buck and going through the motions, Kent was the one player who took on the responsibility of trying to win the match.
I was slightly critical of him at times last year because I never felt he was at the top of his game.
But the one thing I could never criticise was his workrate.
The tricks and flicks might not always have come off but the effort and desire were never in any doubt.
And that’s why he’s become such an important player where the manager is concerned.
Gerrard knows he can hang his hat on Kent when other players might be posted missing.
You see it every week. If Rangers are 3-0 up and cruising in any game then Kent is taken off to rest him up time and now looks ready to really make his mark as a Rangers player.
There were too many times last season when he drifted in and out of matches or was up one week and down the next.
But he has started this season with a different mentality. When Rangers were struggling in the final third at the weekend, every time he got on the ball I thought something was going to happen.
That’s what you need from your star men and there’s no doubt in my mind Gerrard holds Kent in that category.
Yes, eventually the price will be right. There will come a point in time when Rangers can’t afford to turn down the kind of money that will be on offer. But right now? For £10m? In a season as important as this one? They can’t possibly afford to sell him.
Trust me, the manager will be absolutely desperate to keep him at Ibrox and to see him fulfil all that potential in a Rangers shirt.
He won’t even think twice about accepting a deal like that as it would undermine everything he has been trying to build since coming to the club.
Put it this way, when watching his team drop two points at Livi I bet he wished he had another four or five players out there who were all prepared to work as hard for the team as Kent.
He certainly wasn’t getting it from the likes of Alfredo Morelos definitely a player there. Cedric Itten I don’t know so much about. They may need a bit of time to find their feet but you don’t get much of that at a club like Rangers and in a season like this. Both of them really do need to hit the ground running and give Gerrard genuine options if Morelos doesn’t feel like getting the finger out. Make no mistake, Rangers let Celtic off the hook at the weekend and the manager will be angry about that. I don’t know how many times I walked off the pitch after a game like that, got the debrief from the gaffer then turned to my team-mates and said, ‘Oh Jesus, how bad was that?’ But five minutes later you’re in the shower and you’re thinking, ‘How bad was that? I’ll tell you how bad, we just came away with three points, That’s how bad it was…’ That’s what makes the difference when you’re trying to win titles.
Tricks might and flicks not have come always off but effort and were desire never in doubt
Sometimes you just need to find a way to win by hook or by crook. That’s the mentality you need to make it as a Rangers player.
And no one looks like he gets that better than Ryan Kent. That’s why selling him right now isn’t even an option.