Glasgow Rangers have endured a horrendous start to the 2025/26 campaign, failing to win any of their first five matches in the Scottish Premiership.
The Light Blues were also knocked out of the Champions League by a 9-1 defeat to Club Brugge on aggregate, which has left Russell Martin under plenty of pressure early on in his Ibrox career.
There have been some positives to take away from the first couple of months of the campaign, though, including the signing of winger Djeidi Gassama from Sheffield Wednesday.
The French forward arrived from the EFL Championship side for a fee of £2.2m, and he has proven to be an instant success on the flank at Ibrox.
Gassama has produced four goals and one assist in 12 appearances in all competitions for the Scottish giants to date, including four goals in six Champions League qualifiers.
The 22-year-old star is yet to get off the mark in the Premiership, though, which means that the Gers are still looking for their next Ryan Kent at Ibrox.
Why Rangers need to find their next Ryan Kent
The last time that the Light Blues lifted the Scottish Premiership title was with Steven Gerrard in the dugout in the 2020/21 campaign, and Kent was an influential part of that side.
Signed from Liverpool, the English winger emerged as a key player for Rangers for many years on the left wing, providing goals and assists on a fairly regular basis for the most part.
His contributions to the last Premiership title the club won were particularly eye-catching, though, as the forward delivered an outstanding number of goals and assists for his side.
xG
8.28
Top 11%
Goals
10
Top 9%
xA
8.17
Top 6%
Assists
9
Top 9%
Chances created
68
Top 6%
Successful dribbles
70
Top 1%
Touches in the opposition box
162
Top 1%
As you can see in the table above, Kent was one of the most productive wingers in the Premiership at scoring goals, creating goals, dribbling past opposition players, and getting touches in the opposition’s box.
These statistics show that Gerrard was able to rely on the ex-Liverpool attacker to deliver consistent quality in the final third, without being a one-dimensional threat, because he could go down the outside to provide assists or cut inside to score goals.
Kent then went on to finish his career at Rangers with a return of 33 goals and 56 assists in 218 appearances in all competitions, per Transfermarkt, which shows that he also had longevity at Ibrox.
The Light Blues have won one trophy, the League Cup under Philippe Clement in 2023, in the two full seasons since the club released him in the summer of 2023, illustrating how much they have missed his wizardry on the left flank.
Now, though, Martin may have his own version of Kent already at the club and waiting for his chance to really break through, and it is not Gassama.
Whilst the French star has shown flashes in the Champions League, his failure to provide any goals in five appearances in the Premiership so far is a bit of a concern.
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Meanwhile, Rangers have a teenage sensation who has scored a goal in the league this season and has the potential to develop into the club’s next Kent, and his name is Findlay Curtis.
Why Findlay Curtis could be the next Ryan Kent for Rangers
Martin must provide the 18-year-old left-sided attacker with more opportunities to shine at Ibrox in the coming weeks and months because the youngster has shown enough in his limited minutes to suggest that he has serious potential.
Curtis showed great promise during his brief time with the B team. He delivered four goals and three assists in eight appearances at that level before making the step up to the first-team, per Transfermarkt.
Those numbers for the B team were Kent-esque, as he provided quality as both a scorer and a creator of goals from the left flank, and he has shown flashes of translating that output over to the senior side.
“The Boy Wonder”, as described by Premier Sports, scored his first goal for the first-team in a Champions League qualifying clash with Panathinaikos, and the run and strike was one that Kent would have been proud of.
Unfortunately, though, the 18-year-old star has not been given a consistent run of matches to showcase his quality on the pitch on the left flank for the Gers since that fantastic goal in the first match of the season.
Panathinaikos (H)
75
1
Panathinaikos (A)
59
0
Viktoria Plzen (H)
5
0
Dundee (H)
13
0
Alloa Athletic (H)
6
1
St Mirren (A)
14
1
Club Brugge (A)
45
0
Celtic (H)
8
0
Hibernian (H)
13
0
As you can see in the table above, the two games against the Greek side are the only two matches in which he has played more than 45 minutes. They are also the only two outings that he started.
Curtis has scored one goal in 35 minutes of action in the Premiership, netting a crucial equaliser away at St Mirren, as he has only been rewarded with three short cameos off the bench by Martin.
Considering that Rangers have failed to win any of their five Premiership games and that they have failed to score in three of their last four games, it seems bizarre that the youngster has not been afforded more of an opportunity to shine.
The teenage star’s form at B team and first-team level suggests that he has the potential to be a Ryan Kent-esque figure on the left flank, scoring and assisting goals on a regular basis.
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This is why Martin must bring Curtis into the starting XI in the upcoming matches to see if he can deliver consistent quality as a regular starter, given that he has already scored three goals in just 221 minutes of football, per Sofascore, this season.