Sam Lammers ‘fascinates’ Tom English as £3.5m Rangers forward leaves BBC man baffled over lack of quality.
Tom English “can’t see a player” in Rangers forward Sam Lammers despite having watched him “very, very closely”, and doesn’t understand why the club bought him.
The BBC Sport journalist wrote on Twitter Sunday night (29 October), after the 28-year-old had again struggled in the late 2-1 victory over Hearts, to say the Dutchman “fascinates me” amid a lack of return on investment.
Michael Beale signed Lammers from Sampdoria in the summer for the reported fee of £3.5million [Daily Record, 15 June], before the now-former boss disputed the summer outlay, but both English and Jonny McFarlane believe the original number was accurate.
English wrote: “Sam Lammers fascinates me. An outlay of £3.5m. I’ve watched him very, very closely in as many Rangers matches as I can and for the life of me I can’t see a player.
“Anybody studied him pre-Rangers? Must have been a player at some point…”.
After Beale’s claim over an inaccurate price tag was raised English said: “£3.5m was undisputed by the club until people started talking about a waste of £3.5m. Seen this a lot over the years.”
Rangers Review’s McFarlane then replied to reiterate: “It was £3.5m”.
Tipping point
Lammers has clearly had nowhere near the impact he was supposed to have at Ibrox but has arguably gone under the radar as Cyriel Dessers has copped most of the flak for the underwhelming summer overhaul.
Of course Beale has paid the biggest price as the signings he made performed poorly enough as a whole for him to lose his job.
But with Michael Stewart highlighting Lammers’ struggles repeatedly throughout a dismal team showing against Hearts until the late, late turnaround took the points, it seems perhaps the spotlight has switched from one struggling new forward to another.
His scoring record looked concerning during the summer when Beale went after him, having netted a combined total of nine goals in all competitions since the start of the 2019/20 season.
But there was supposed to be more to his game than that, and after the former manager’s first two signings had fit in well – Todd Cantwell and Nico Raskin – the assumption was that he had a plan.
If he did it never worked out, and Lammers’ one goal is in keeping with recent seasons, yet there has been little else to his game to justify the outlay as matches tend to happen around him.
Whether he can yet come through such a difficult start, as Abdallah Sima has and Danilo might, remains to be seen, but so far the move hasn’t worked out by any means.