What Can Rangers Expect From New Signing Sam Lammers?
Rangers completed the signing of striker Sam Lammers from Serie A side Atalanta for a fee of £3 million on a four-year deal. The Dutch striker becomes Michael Beale’s fourth signing of the summer window. A product of PSV Eindhoven’s youth system, he spent five years playing in the Eredivisie, where he won the league title with the Red Whites in the 2017/2018 season. Following a loan spell at SC Heerenveen in the 2018/2019 season, scoring 19 goals in 35 appearances, he returned to PSV for the 2019/2020 season but missed the majority of the campaign due to knee surgery.
Lammers left PSV in September 2020 for Serie A side Atalanta for €9 million plus €2 million in bonuses. He spent time on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt, Empoli and Sampdoria. The former PSV youngster was in the Frankfurt squad that defeated Rangers in the 2022 Europa League final. During his time in Italy, the 26-year-old scored four Serie A goals in 50 appearances and has 30 career goals to his name.
For a striker, that’s not exactly great reading, but there is more to Lammers’ game and how he will be a solid fit for Beale’s system. The 6ft3 striker has impressive hold-up play, can bring others into the game, and is skilful for his size. He’s physically imposing, which is what the Light Blues need up front since Alfredo Morelos is no longer at the club.
Speaking with Sky Sports News, Lammers spoke about how he isn’t your typical striker and what he can bring in the final third for the Ibrox side: “I know for a striker, the main target is to score a lot of goals and I know I can do that also. So, I am aware of this being a big part of being a striker and this is also my goal at Rangers to do that, but like you said, I am not the typical striker who’s only hanging inside the box for one or two chances. I want to help the team. I can drop out of the striker position and with my height you would expect me to be a target man or something like this.”
The versatile forward said one of the reasons he has struggled to find the back of the net in recent seasons was due to the lack of service he would receive while playing in struggling teams. He added: “I want to score more goals because I know I have it in me and I had periods where I scored a lot of goals and now the last couple of years not so much, even though sometimes in the clubs I was at it was not easy – I did not get a lot of chances. So, I think the attacking playing style at Rangers also fits me, of course, Rangers has to win every game and especially in the league and this fits me as a player really well.”
Lammers has valuable experience from playing in Holland, Germany and Italy and is a power unit that should be a thorn in the side for centre halves to deal with in Scotland. Beale has shown that he’s got a good eye for a player and the signings of Todd Cantwell and Nicolas Raskin prove that.
Of course, this signing is a huge gamble, but Beale knows himself he must get this summer window spot on. After the defeat to Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final, Beale said it would be the “biggest rebuild at Ibrox in years.” If Lammers works out, Beale will be hailed as a genius. If it doesn’t, the Scottish media will have their articles ready and raring to go to lambast the Englishman.
By: Scott Bradley / @ScottBradleyX
Featured Image: GabFoligno / Ross MacDonald – SNS Group