What's in a name

 

As I sit here now, Thursday the 25th March 2021, I have just opened up the livescore app to check the results of a number of international games. I don't particularly care about any of the results, though I do hope Scotland doesn't win, to each their own but I can'tback the SFA or Steve Clarke. At the time of opening, they're losing 2-1. My eyes are also drawn to the Romania game. 

I open the fixture to see if Hagi has come on yet. He has, he came on in the 76th minute to replace Florin Tanese with Romania 2-0 up. I briefly think "I hope he has time to do something worth remembering and putting himself in contention for the next game". Not long after this however North Macedonia score 2 goals in quick succession and pull the game back to 2-2... oops. 

But then up steps our boy Hagi. in the 86th min the ball comes across the 18yard box from the right side to meet him waiting on the left and he calmly puts it into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal. 3-2 and Romania win the game with Hagi the hero. I don't think I could have hoped for much more with my wish earlier.

14 months prior to this it was announced on the 31st January 2020 that Rangers had brought in Ianis Hagi on loan till the end of the season with an option to buy from Genk in Belgium. I was extremely excited about this signing. Of course, his dad was a name I knew well so that in itself brought a lot of excitement but not only that, I had heard many speak of his brilliant performance at the European U-21's Championships in the summer, not least of which Davey Edgar from Heart & Hand who I am an avid listener of. 

It was true he hadn't had the best of time in Genk. He came in with a lot of expectation and it started well, he came off the bench to score on his debut. He then scored 2 penalties a couple of months later, one with each foot... this was exactly the level of hubris that Rangers had been missing the past decade. This was what we were looking for. He eventually fell out of favour at Genk as Hannes Wolf replaced Felice Mazzu and did not see a place for Hagi in his Genk team.

A change of scenery would be good for both Hagi and Genk. This was the signing that was going to push us over the line and bring that title home in 2020... or so I thought. After a brief sub appearance against Aberdeen he started against and scored his first goal for the club against Hibs on the 5th February 2020... here we go, there's no stopping him now I thought. However other than an assist against Livingston a couple of games later he seemed to drift out of games. The physicality, while not being too much for him, seemed to keep him from making the impact we had hoped and expected.

It was Europe where we saw his best performance of that shortened season, scoring an unforgettable double against Braga on the 20th February as we came from behind to win 3-2 and then providing an assist for Kent in the away fixture as we won 1-0. However, he did miss a penalty just before halftime in that game during a period it seemed we would be better asking the officials for a corner instead of taking a penalty.

As the season was then cut short a lot of speculation surrounded Hagi and whether we would make the signing permanent due to his hit or miss style in the league, but for me, it was a no-brainer. Here was a player that obviously had an abundance of talent, could score a goal, could see a pass others couldn't, he was still very young and had a huge name in the world of football. There was no way we could pass up this opportunity.

Fortunately, Steven Gerrard and Ross Wilson were of a similar thought process and the deal was wrapped up very early, despite criticism from such footballing sock puppets as Chris Sutton and racism denier Michael Stewart, and Hagi was staying at the place he once described as "Ibrox baby, it's just different". Another great thing to see through all this was that his dad, the world-famous Gheorghe Hagi, continually spoke about how great it was for Ianis to be at Rangers and how we were the best club for him.

So now, like Steven Davis and Jermain Defoe the year before, we had our player in for a short loan to get used to the club (though in Davis' case I suppose he didn't need to get used to it) and would now have a pre-season to unlock the talent we knew was there and get him prepared for the season ahead.

I've seen numerous fees quoted for what we paid for Hagi, and let me tell you, no matter which one of those turns out to be right... we will make a lot of profit on this young man. Yes, he still has his inconsistent games within the league, but do you know what? Even when he's done nothing for 70mins I'm still sitting there waiting, expecting that one killer pass that nobody else on the pitch or watching on TV sees that he will make that will lead to the winning goal.

Also despite those inconsistencies I speak of still has 7 goals and 12 assists to his name this season. That's a goal involvement every 127mins. Not bad for someone "inconsistent" and playing in a position that quite obviously doesn't suit his style. Also not bad for a player only 22 and in his first full season at the club.

Hagi's biggest problem in his career is always going to be that first word... "Hagi". He will always be compared to his father because his father was such a wonderful player. Football has changed wildly since his dad was a footballer though. Even the lower league players train and prepare to a higher standard than most top-tier teams did back then. Also, his father was one of the best in the world. That is quite the mantle to live up to.

All that being said at aged 22 Gheorghe Hagi had only just signed for Steaua Bucharest, a great team but let's face it they're not the Famous Glasgow Rangers. It wasn't until he was 25 when he made his big move to Real Madrid so let's see where Ianis is then, but I'd say at 22 having already played for Fiorentina, Genk & Rangers (twice in the last 16 of the Europa League) and leading Romania U21's to the semi-final of the European Championships isn't a bad start. Not to mention being the face of Pepsi and staring in commercials with Lionel Messi.

With reported interest from Lazio in taking Hagi back to Serie A in the summer I'm hoping the club can either hang on to a player I think has a lot more to provide going forward or can negotiate a big fee with a big sell on, but I think it's fair to say either way Hagi has a big and bright future ahead of him.

I for one can not wait to see him take a few more bows, hopefully in person, at Ibrox soon, because... it's just different.

The Rambling Ger

Twitter - @GerRambling

IG - TheRamblingGer