Pundit claims Ryan Kent is ‘a lot better’ than Celtic star

Rangers’ decision to sign Ryan Kent for a whopping £7-million on Deadline Day has been branded as a ‘gamble’ by many. But Craig Beattie has claimed that it is anything but as he believes Kent was ‘a lot better’ last season than the Celtic star most people consider to be the best player in Scotland at the moment.

After failing to make the grade at Liverpool, Ryan Kent finally found a home at Ibrox last season scoring 6 goals and assisting a further 6 in his 43 appearances for Rangers. And it is clear that Steven Gerrard was impressed with the performances of the winger as he splashed out £7-million in the summer transfer window to sign him on a permanent basis immediately after their 2-0 loss against Celtic on Sunday.

But not even the most enthusiastic Rangers fan would claim that the Liverpool youth product is anywhere close to Odsonne Edouard at the moment, who has set Scottish football on fire since joining the club in 2017/18 on loan from Paris Saint-Germain before making the move permanent last summer.

During his short time at Celtic Park, Edouard has already scored 40 goals for the Hoops leading them to consecutive trebles. After his hot start to the 2019/20 season where he has already scored 9 goals in 15 appearances, including Celtic’s 2-0 win in the Old Firm Derby last Sunday as well as big European games, fans and pundits alike are claiming him to be the best player plying his trade in Scotland at the moment.

But that has not stopped former Celtic player and current pundit, Craig Beattie, from claiming Ryan Kent had a better first season in Scotland during his loan stint at Rangers in 2018/19 than Edouard did at Celtic in 2017/18. Speaking to Clyde 1 Superscoreboard, Beattie said:

"“It’s definitely not a gamble [signing Kent]. I’m going to draw an analogy to Brendan Rodgers bringing Edouard in on loan with the £9-million permanent fee that would come.“Kent done a lot better than what Edouard did on his loan season and I think that’s the reason it’s not a gamble.“I also think that’s the reason that they were then able to push the £7-million through on the last day of the window.”"

Just for context, Beattie scored 6 goals in his 43 appearances for Rangers last season and failed to win any trophies. Edouard, on the other hand, scored 11 goals in 14 less appearances while winning a treble during his first season at the club. Really hard to see what Beattie was getting at there!