Today Rangers announced the signing of Joe Dodoo on a four year deal from English Premier League champions Leicester City.

It has again shown us that the Ibrox outfit are thinking long-term and making the most of connections that they have in England and in the youth set-up down south.

Dodoo was offered a new longer deal to stay on at the King Power stadium but decided to travel north of the border in order to gain more first team opportunities.

Speaking to David Bevan, a Foxes supporter and author of ‘The Unbelievables‘ (a book chronicling Leicester City’s title winning campaign), he states:

“The good news for Glasgow Rangers supporters is: we’re surprised Dodoo is leaving.”

David speculates that the reason for the departure was that Leicester’s huge unexpected success last season has hindered Dodoo’s chances of having a clear route into the Foxes first team:

“Rangers won’t be signing a discarded player so much as one who has been unable to match the club’s startling rate of progress”

The young attacker had the likes of Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, Leonardo Ulloa, Shinji Okazaki and Demarai Gray ahead of him in the queue to play for Claudio Ranieri’s side in the East Midlands. The Premier League champs have also just completed the club record signing of Nigerian forward Ahmed Musa, who can play up front or out-wide just like Joe.

So it’s easy to understand why Joe Dodoo has decided to leave the Premier League champions.

I can also understand why he’s ended up in Glasgow, signing for Rangers.

Gers boss Mark Warburton has a history of giving young players the chance to shine in the first team. Last season young industrious winger Barrie McKay was given the opportunity to prove himself at Rangers and he was one of their stars of the season and earned international recognition in the summer.

So if you are good enough and have the right attitude, then you’ll get your chance to star at Ibrox under Warburton and Dodoo will be all out to prove himself and relish that challenge.

The Rangers manager and the recruitment team have obviously been impressed by Dodoo, who scored four times for the Foxes in two League Cup encounters and also managed to make his Premier League debut last term.

Dodoo is a versatile player who can play on the wing or through the middle as a striker. He possesses pace, skills and a composed finish with either foot. Being versatile will impress Warburton who will no doubt use the youngster in both positions.

Joe also has raw talent and plenty of potential and Rangers fans will hope that they can see him develop into a star. The Ibrox faithful believe in Warburton and chief talent spotter Frank McParland and will hope that Dodoo represents another top young talent that can excite them when they see him taking on opponents.

He arrives at Rangers during the same summer as other exciting prospects; Jordan Rossiter, Matt Crookes and Josh Windass. All players who were being scouted by other English sides. But moving to Rangers means a better chance of getting straight into the first team.

For the club they can pick up these young English talents for a fraction of the price because they only need to pay relatively small developmental fees. It means that they can hopefully watch these players develop into real gems and then they can sell them on for a hefty profit.

After a few years of really odd, boring and disappointing transfer purchases, Rangers are now thinking longer term and are running the club like a proper sporting business. It doesn’t mean that they won’t try and win things or entertain, it just shows a willingness to get more for their buck in the transfer market and that’s something that Rangers fans have wanted to see for a long time now.

I’ll leave it up to David to assess what this deal means for Rangers:

“A hat-trick on his debut in the League Cup, a goal against West Ham in the next round, a substitute appearance at Bournemouth in the Premier League: none of these things were quite enough to push Dodoo into Claudio Ranieri’s first-team plans this season, but they show enough promise for Rangers fans to be confident they are signing a very impressive young player – particularly the coolness of finishing in relatively pressurised situations.”

 

Posted on July 19th, 2016 by scott
Filed under: Article