The January transfer window is now officially open for business and Glasgow Rangers supporters may be excited to see who the club can bring before the deadline.
Mohamed Diomande and Oscar Cortes both joined on initial loans, before returning to the club this summer, and Fabio Silva signed on a short-term loan in the winter window at the start of last year.
Every signing is met with a degree of excitement, whether that is from a small or large section of the fanbase, as people can be hopeful about the impact that the player can have on the team.
One star who was heavily hyped after his move to Ibrox was central defender Filip Helander, who joined from Bologna for £3.5m in the summer of 2019.
Filip Helander compared to Premier League giant
One week after his move to Glasgow was confirmed, the Sweden international was hyped up by compatriot Robert Prytz, a former Rangers star, who compared him to Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk.
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Speaking to The Scottish Sun, the retired Swedish ace said: “He got moves there (Italy) as he’s very much a modern-day footballer who likes to build play from the back. He doesn’t just whack it 60 yards up the field.
“He’s more like Virgil van Dijk in the way he wants to pass the ball — but he’s strong and tall enough to dominate if his team is defending.”
That was a big claim from Prytz to compare him to former Celtic star Virgil van Dijk, who was once the most expensive centre-back in history after his move to Liverpool for £75m from Southampton in 2018.
The Netherlands international, who has won a Premier League and a Champions League trophy with the Reds, was a star in Scotland and earned himself a £13m transfer to the Saints from Parkhead in 2015.
How Filip Helander fared at Ibrox
Rangers, with those comments and the £3.5m fee paid, may have thought they were onto a winner with Helander, who could have been their own version of van Dijk and someone they went on to sell for a profit further down the line.
Unfortunately, that did not turn out to be the case and injuries played a significant role in his ultimate failure at Ibrox, and those issues started in his debut season.
Helander missed 23 matches with a foot injury from December 2019 to March 2020 and only made 18 appearances in all competitions, with just eight of those coming in the Scottish Premiership.
As you can see in the table below, his best season in a Gers shirt came in the 2020/21 title-winning campaign under Steven Gerrard, starting 21 of the club’s 38 matches.
Starts
21
Tackles + interceptions per game
2.4
Ground duel success rate
66%
Aerial duel success rate
70%
Clean sheets
13
Whilst the Swedish titan did not start the vast majority of the league games, Helander still played a crucial role in the games that he was available for – dominating opposition attackers on the ground and in the air.
Unfortunately, though, he only went on to play six league games in the next two seasons – missing 99 matches through knee and foot injuries between September 2021 and May 2023.
The Sweden international was then released in the summer of 2023, after just 60 appearances in four seasons, after injuries prevented him from ever being able to live up to the van Dijk comparison.
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2 ByRoss Kilvington
