In the years since Alfredo Morelos' Ibrox decline, Glasgow Rangers have cycled through strikers like nobody's business, yet to really find that leading man in attack.

None of those to have arrived in Glasgow have been quite so polarising as Cyriel Dessers, the Nigerian splitting opinion and dominating the headlines across his two-year stay at the club.

While arguably one of the more fruitful striker signings of late in terms of his goal record, Dessers won't be remembered too fondly due to his profligate nature, missing gilt-edged chances time and again for the Light Blues.

Not a wholly popular figure then at Ibrox, although is he the worst number nine to arrive at the club in recent memory?

How Dessers compares to recent striker signings at Rangers

As noted above, on the face of it, Dessers' Rangers record wasn't overwhelmingly negative, not least in comparison to his peers, having scored 51 goals in 116 games in all competitions.

In 2023/24 and 2024/25, he scored 16 and 18 Premiership goals, respectively, a solid return for the former Cremonense man, particularly at a time of turbulence for the Gers.

And yet, when digging a little deeper, it's easy to see why the 31-year-old was such a divisive figure in Glasgow, having missed a staggering 47 'big chances' across his two full seasons in the Premiership.

Perhaps his biggest crime was his lack of impact on the big occasion too, with his record against rivals Celtic having been particularly disappointing.

In all, Dessers made 11 appearances in the Old Firm, featuring more times against Celtic than any other team in his career to date. The result? Just two goals scored in that time, scoring in May 2024 and May 2025 post-split.

New man Kevin Kelsy already looks ready to better that return, based on his stellar derby debut last time out, while Youssef Chermiti already has four in this fixture, following his heroics earlier this year.

The current quintet of strikers at Rangers will hopefully prove far more successful than Dessers ever was, although as the table above showcases, it would be wrong to suggest that the Nigerian has been the only transfer misfire in that department of late.

Why Rangers have wasted millions on a worse signing than Dessers

The summer of 2023 was a particularly pivotal one at Ibrox, with that window seeing both Ryan Kent and the aforementioned Morelos depart on free transfers, the team that had won the title under Steven Gerrard having been swiftly ripped up in the years after.

The loss of the Colombian, following a muted final year or so in Glasgow, sparked the need for Rangers to find a suitable replacement to spearhead the attack, with few coming close to emulating his success in front of goal.

In the end, it perhaps proved a case of Michael Beale and co opting for quantity over quality, spending big on three centre-forwards that summer in the form of Dessers, Danilo and Sam Lammers.

In Dessers, Rangers did at least see some return on their investment considering his solid goal record, while for Lammers, he was moved on almost as quickly as he arrived, never really looking up to scratch in Scottish football.

The bigger error of three, it must be said, was signing Danilo, however, the Brazilian still technically on the books at Ibrox, having been sent out on loan to Botafogo back in July.

The failure to shift the 27-year-old permanently, after three forgettable years at the club, does point to what a dismal signing he has been, particularly considering he cost £6m to bring in from Feyenoord in the first place.

Of course, injury has been the key issue for Danilo in recent years, but even then, his goal return has left plenty to be desired when he has featured, scoring just 16 in 76 games in total.

This was a man who'd previously scored nine in 20 for Ajax, 14 in 48 for Feyenoord and 17 in 34 for FC Twente, not exactly prolific but someone who would at least chip in with a respectable tally.

Alas, moving away from the Netherlands hasn't worked out for either the striker himself or for Rangers, having made a return to the Eredivisie on loan in January to join NEC Nijmegen.

With current club Botafogo holding a conditional obligation to buy, the expectation is that, all being well, he will finally move on permanently in 2027, having been a real drain on the wage bill for much of his time in Glasgow.

Reportedly earning £26k-per-week, or £1.3m per year, that equates to roughly £3m in wages so far, if excluding his time out on loan, a sizeable figure when also factoring in the initial £6m price tag.

£9m spent on a player who's scored 16 times in over 70 games makes for grim reading, with Derek McInnes and co hoping that their current crop don't suffer the same fate in the near future.