Rangers let £1.5m gem with “big potential” leave too early under Gerrard

Glasgow Rangers have reached the League Cup final and stand a good chance of progressing to the knockout stages of the Europa League under Philippe Clement.

While they may be eight points behind Celtic in the Premiership title (albeit with a game in hand), the Belgian has turned around their fortunes following a dismal start to the current season.

Although the previous 18 months have seen the club go trophyless while struggling to keep up with their Old Firm rivals in the league, it isn’t nearly as bad as the spell between 2016 and 2018.

The Ibrox side even finished third during the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons, behind both Celtic and Aberdeen and the club were in a crisis.

Mark Warburton left after just eight months into his first top-flight season, and he was replaced by Pedro Caixinha, who must go down as one of the worst managers in the club’s history.

He made several woeful signings during his brief stint in charge of the club, wasting vast sums of money in the process, while he even failed to defeat minnows Progres Niederkorn in Europe.

There was a signing he made who didn’t quite showcase his true potential at the club, yet has gone on to prove everyone at Ibrox wrong about his recent career trajectory – Fabio Cardoso.

How much Rangers signed Fabio Cardoso for

During the summer of 2017, Caixinha was aiming to build a squad which could challenge Celtic for the league title and looking back, it looked like an impossible task.

New arrivals included the likes of Carlos Pena, Dalcio, Eduardo Herrera and Declan John, hardly a list of players who were about to challenge for trophies.

Cardoso was one of the more exciting signings, joining from Vitoria Setubal for a fee in the region of £1.5m and considering Caixinha’s Portuguese heritage, it looked as though the Gers may have picked up a hidden gem.

Indeed, Caixinha certainly thought so, expressing his delight at signing the player, saying: “He is a player who everyone describes as having big potential to be one of the centre-halves of the future with the Portuguese national team.

“We believe in him and he can perform on the right or on the left which is good in a centre-half.”

What could possibly go wrong?

Fabio Cardoso’s statistics at Rangers

The centre-back was often paired alongside his compatriot Bruno Alves, and it looked like it could potentially blossom into a decent pairing.

Despite a consistent start to his Gers career starting the first 13 matches of the season, his fortunes changed during the League Cup semi-final in October 2017 against Motherwell.

Not only did the Light Blues slump to a woeful 2-0 defeat at Hampden, but Cardoso was on the receiving end of an elbow from Ryan Bowman which broke his nose and forced him off the field with just 20 minutes left in the match.

He was never quite the same after that injury, playing just another four games for the club as interim manager Graeme Murty didn’t fancy him and what could have been the start of a promising career at the club, ended rather shoddily.

The club finished third that term and Steven Gerrard was announced as the new manager in May 2018 as a new era began, one without Cardoso.

What Fabio Cardoso did after leaving Rangers

The former Liverpool captain underwent a major summer revolution upon his arrival in Glasgow, shipping out players who were not going to play a part in his future plans.

Cardoso was one who didn’t quite make the cut, as the Light Blues tore up his contract after just a year in Scotland, and he ended up joining Santa Clara in Portugal.

His three years at the club produced 97 appearances – scoring 11 goals and grabbing five assists in the process – and this led to Porto making a move for the former Gers centre-back, and he joined the club at the start of the 2021/22 campaign.

From failing to make the bench at Rangers to playing for one of the biggest clubs in Portugal within three and a half years was a remarkable turnaround, and he is certainly making the most of his chance at the elite level.

His spell in Porto has allowed Cardoso to claim three trophies while also being able to showcase his abilities in the Champions League on a regular basis.

Indeed, across four matches in Europe’s premier club competition last term, the 29-year-old held a pass success rate of 89% along with keeping three clean sheets during those four matches and losing possession on average 6.3 times per game.

The defender also ranked third across the squad for tackles per game (1.8) while ranking second for clearances per game (3.8) and fourth for accurate long passes per game (2.5), clearly suggesting that he was at ease in the Champions League.

Did Rangers get rid of Cardoso too hastily? The recent statistics indicate that, if given time, he could have made a solid impression under Gerrard and developed into a robust and combative centre-back who could have shined in Scotland.

According to Football Transfers, the 29-year-old is currently valued at €3m (£2.6m) and the club certainly had a nightmare by allowing him to leave by mutual consent rather than selling him for a fee.

The Light Blues have made their fair share of mistakes in the transfer window since returning to the top flight back in 2016, yet Cardoso might just go down as one of their biggest.

Not for how he performed on the pitch, but the way his departure was handled. At a time when the club needed to be spending money wisely, Gerrard wasted a significant amount by sending Cardoso on his way after ripping up his contract and had they not secured group-stage European football that term, it might have proven more costly than it did.

Clement will have paid attention to what his predecessors have done to avoid repeating the same mistakes and the onus is for the Gers to now build a player trading model which will allow them to sell players for the highest available figure.