It’s time for Rangers’ Mohamed Diomande to finally step up | OneFootball

If there’s one player we don’t discuss a huge amount it’s Ivorian star Mohamed Diomande. The Rangers midfielder joined in January on an initial loan, but is now a permanent deal for £4.5M, and it’s safe to say he’s not exactly convinced yet that he’s value for the money.

Dio has been at Ibrox now for 9 months, and the ‘needs a preseason’ excuse definitely doesn’t wash any more – the former Nordsjælland has had a fair old time to get up to speed, and he’s hardly defined yet as a favourite.

In theory, we have seen glimpses of this lad – his best performances, curiously, came in last season’s cup, where the semi and final showed his power, pace, passing and reading at some of its best, and just briefly he looked like he was going to push on, with a preseason under his belt.

It just hasn’t happened and he even lost his place in the side prior to the Old Firm match, where he was then restored to yet another underwhelming display.

Diomande reminds us of the Pedro days, when an obscure player from some backwater league was exalted as a sensation – Rangers ended up with a pile of mismatched and mismanaged rubbish as Herrera and Pena ended up in town.

Dio doesn’t fit in any more than Jose Cifuentes did, he’s offered absolutely no more than the Ecuadorian did – he too managed the odd half decent display but overall offered no major convincing reason to keep him in place.

Neither has Dio.

In theory, the 22-year-old really does have the tools to be something good, but he’s just not showing it yet.

Nordsjælland have a habit of this, of rearing African players and getting them to shine in Denmark before selling at a huge profit. They’ve done this many times.

Dio was another, but as yet there’s nothing really for Rangers fans to get excited about.

£4.5M should get you something that shines, Dio so far is looking a £500,000 midfielder at best.

We really need more from him.