WHEN HE made the breakthrough at Burnley three years ago, supporters nicknamed Kyle Lafferty 'Kylovic' because his bony 6ft 4in frame, languid gait and sure touch recalled Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Rangers will be hoping the comparisons do not end there.
The Ibrox club's assistant manager Ally McCoist freely admits that his club have "gambled" by banking £3m with Burnley for the 20-year-old Northern Ireland forward. Effectively, after hitting the jackpot with the £9m sale of home-grown Alan Hutton t
o Tottenham Hotspur, they have placed a stack of those chips on a player whose worth can only be measured in potential. Meanwhile, another stack was cashed to tie up goalkeeper Allan McGregor on a long-term contract. McCoist believes that with such moves Rangers are going Dutch; the football model they must follow.
"There has to be a realisation among the fans that times have changed with the Old Firm and Scottish football," he says. "But, in an ideal world, I don't see why we can't be a team like Ajax or PSV Eindhoven. And by that I mean competing at the top level in Europe most years but, ultimately, requiring to sell your best talent to survive. I think these kinds of clubs have managed it perfectly. The financial situation down south dictates everything really.
"We can't afford to compete with these guys, the likes of Fulham, so we have to look and see how we can get round that. I think the fans have a better realisation but (as with McGregor] it's a real boost to see that we won't sell them right away, we'll try and nurture them and keep them coming along.
"Ajax and PSV have been going to the likes of Brazil and getting Ronaldo and Romario as young kids. Obviously it's a gamble but it's one route I think we'd certainly have to think about going down. There is a fear factor to a certain degree, but I think the positives far outweigh the negatives. We can't go out and get the finished product at £12m – it's impossible. We can't afford it and we can't compete with the top clubs."
The sum of £12m was precisely what Ajax sold Ibrahimovic to Juventus for in 2004, following 32 goals in 73 league appearances for the club. Three years earlier, the Amsterdam club had parted with £5m to acquire the then 19-year-old from Malmo. But, unlike with Rangers and Kyle, Ajax acquired a proven goalscorer. Across a half century of appearances in his homeland, Ibrahimovic had netted a goal every other game.
Those who have watched Lafferty since he debuted at Turf Moor three years ago describe him as a player you either see it with or don't. Burnley's Belfast scout, Raymond Laverty, who "knew the kid was a diamond" at 15, detected a sparkle then missed by Northern Ireland selectors as he first watched the player on a park in Dungannon.
Until Lafferty's final month with Burnley, he was played out wide on the left, which helps explain why 83 league appearances for the club yielded only ten goals. It is a strike-rate in sharp contrast to his record at international level. Playing as a second striker behind David Healy, he has found the net five times in 16 appearances for his country. It was in this domain that McCoist was alerted to a gem capable of being buffed up – and the reason why Burnley were in a position last year to rebuff a £4m offer for the forward from Fulham, managed by his former international coach Lawrie Sanchez.
"Although we had him scouted at Burnley I never saw him there," McCoist says. "I watched him score against Sweden and against Georgia while playing through the middle and he really impressed me.
"It is important to get out and have a look because it is your judgment that determines whether they're going to come and how successful they'll be."
Lafferty looking the part in green and white has led to him being likened to another lanky frontman, Peter Crouch, although the Rangers assistant is uncomfortable with the branding.
"I'd be loath to compare him to Crouch because I think they're different, but Crouch is a good footballer despite his criticism," he says. "You look at someone of that height and think they'll be good in the air but Crouch has a good touch and can bring people into play. I certainly know where Lawrie Sanchez is coming from when he says Kyle can take the ball and is comfortable on it. He can go in behind as well which is very important for a team like ourselves because you can't be one dimensional and just come short.
"There is more to Kyle than being a target man. He's very quick but can handle the physical side of it no problem, which is important. That won't scare him. He's also got a very nice touch for a big lad and I'm really looking forward to working with him because there is a lot of potential. He is desperate to do well and you love working with guys like that. He's got one or two other things in his locker, and the fact he played on the left hand side for Burnley shows that. It's an exciting year for him."
Lafferty might need to temper his excitement. As one of the mini-bus load of strikers Walter Smith can call upon after the summer recruitment of Kenny Miller and Andrius Velicka, the Irishman initially will have to defer to elders. Indeed, McCoist places Miller above all his Scottish contemporaries. Which doesn't appear to square with the inability of the £2m capture from Derby to make himself indispensable at Celtic last year, or Rangers seven years ago. It's a CV that has made him an unacceptable acquisition in the eyes of some among the Ibrox support.
"I hope the fans give him a fair crack of the whip, that's all you can ask for," McCoist says. "Just treat him as a Rangers player on his form. The Old Firm is a tough place to play. There's a graveyard full of centre forwards and strikers who didn't make it for Rangers or Celtic.
"It's how you handle it and I've got no problems about Kenny's attitude and desire to do it, which I think will see him through. He's taken the more difficult option. It would have been easy to walk away and spend the next three years of his career elsewhere.
"But I hope he enjoys working with us because we enjoy working with him and I really hope it's fruitful for him. He's good enough, and anyone who says otherwise is talking nonsense. Of course fans are entitled to their opinion and that won't change. I think they are having a go because he played with Celtic and some are blinkered in that way.
"But in my opinion he's the best all-round Scottish striker at the moment. Boydie (Kris Boyd] has his goals, Faddy (James McFadden] has great talent and a wee spark, but pound for pound you'd have Kenny starting in your team before anyone."
The full article contains 1199 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
