Umar Sadiq was one of the budding talents of world football when he joined Rangers. The fact that he was coming from a club of AS Roma’s stature made the fans more optimistic about his chances of breaking through to the starting lineup on a regular basis. However, after the dismal performance in the League Cup semi-final defeat against Aberdeen, it seems likely that the forward would return to Italy.
What made it more evident was after the Aberdeen game, Sadiq failed to make it to the bench in any of the games even though Kyle Lafferty missed some encounters due to an injury. Youngsters like Dapo Mebude and Serge Atakayi have been preferred by Gerrard and that definitely says a lot about the situation of Sadiq at the club.
To be fair, Sadiq did have a decent match against Aberdeen up until the moment which probably changed his Rangers career. The Nigerian played as a target man in the all-important semi-final game and did his job well for the most parts by holding the ball well and bringing his team-mates into play. However, the glaring error which he made during the 83rd minute has probably cost him his stint in Glasgow. This is what happened when the Gers were trailing and running out of time
https://twitter.com/RangersCircle/status/1056665085186400257
A shambolic dive ruined the opportunity when the forward was one on one with the goalkeeper, and that probably goes to show the player’s attitude and mentality as he was trying to earn a cheap penalty when the ball was very much in play to score the goal.
Things could have been very different if the 21-year-old had slotted the ball in and he would have been an absolute darling of the Gers fans. Instead, he has been mocked, criticised and lambasted for his dive (rightly so). A game of football hinges on moments and fans always remembers the moment that matters. Everything that Sadiq did right in that game was undone because of that incident, and there seems to be no way back for him at the moment.
Often youngsters who find great success at the youth level stumble when they hit a roadblock at the senior level as they are not used to failing, and they lack the commitment and desire to get things right again.
Their natural talents can only see them through up until some point, and after that, a player’s desire to work hard and to be the best makes a significant difference. That is why there is a long list of unsuccessful footballers who had an abundance of talent. For Sadiq’s sake, hopefully, he doesn’t join that list in ten years’ time.
The Nigerian can learn from this experience and resurrect his career as he is still young and has time on his hand. However, that resurgence isn’t likely to happen at the Ibrox.
