Gedion Zelalem completed his loan spell at Rangers with an appearance in yesterday’s Scottish Cup final against Hibernian.
The 19-year-old, who scored a penalty in the semi-final shootout against Celtic, started the game and put in a tidy performance before being substituted just after the hour with the scores level at 1-1.
Rangers, who last month secured a return to the SPL when they won the Scottish Championship, were bidding for their 34th Scottish Cup triumph but were downed 3-2 in stoppage time by Hibs.
Ex-Gunner Anthony Stokes, on loan at Easter Road from Celtic, opened the scoring after just three minutes, before Mark Warburton’s side hit back either side of half time through Kenny Miller’s header and Andy Halliday’s stunning long-range effort.
Stokes’ second of the day leveled things up with ten minutes to go before Hibernian captain David Gray headed home a corner in stoppage time to secure the cup for Alan Stubbs’ side.
The victory, Hibernian’s first Scottish Cup success since 1902, sparked a huge pitch invasion that forced the police into action and delayed the presentation of the trophy. Rangers have since claimed that their players and staff were assaulted.
All in all, a very eventful end to Zelalem’s successful spell at Ibrox. The German-born American will now take a break before returning for pre-season training at London Colney.
A loan spell with Bournemouth or someone similar would be good at this stage and we can see how he gets on.
If Benitez stays at Newcastle, I think they would be the best team for loanees.
No sir, Benitez destroys players if they do not perform to his expectation.
Does he? Do you have any examples?
I thought he was brilliant for us yesterday. If he’d stayed on we would have won the cup I reckon.
Agreed – once he went off we gave up possession – boy is a really clever footballer and we will miss him
I think you’ll find they were bidding for their first Scottish cup! That club’s only been around for 5 years!
Why not westham?
We need him to play.
At a Europa League club with a new stadium and high expectations, he won’t be playing much, if ever.
And we’ve see how that can affect the development of players like Gnabry
Another loan is nescessary i suppose. Although he’d develop so well training alongside Ozil.
Another loan at Rangers
Quality of football not as high as championship, but the pressure he’s under as a Rangers player and the expectation to win every week will prepare him better for life at Arsenal than time with a small premier league club or championship team. Very physical league which will help as he’s still very slight.
I agree with this. I also think he’ll get more playing time at Rangers than he would at a Championship Club.
Maybe the quality is not as high as Championship football, but Rangers didn’t do Arteta any harm! (Nor Gattuso, for that matter.) They’re a storied club with huge expectations playing in very physical league. It’ll be good for him.
To be honest, he hasn’t been very good. He is neat, twists and turns well etc but does little to affect a game. Doesn’t seem to have a killer pass in him and his finishing is dreadful. If he is ever to come through as a player he really needs to add some grit to his game.
I always remember Anthony Stokes as the kid we loaned to a second tier Scottish side, and he was top scorer of the entire division half way through the season. And in January we loaned him out to another team in the same division, by the end of the season Stokes was both top scorer and runner up top scorer for the division. This was back in the day when we had high hopes for Arturo Lupoli and Bendtner, and Thierry was still with us, Van Persie was an exciting prospect, and somehow Alliadiere was still getting in the team.… Read more »
Fantastic that Hibs beat Sevco Rangers who were making their first Scottish final appearance.
Who has a better chance of making the first team next season Zelalem or Toral?? Surely we will keep on floating around for cup games and the inevitable injuries…
He did very well for Rangers but he’s still a young lad. He’s taken on the pressure of a big club and the physicality of the SP2 (or whatever it’s called) but most of their games are so slow it’s really no experience for playing in the PL. I can’t see us keeping him in the squad next season just for a few TinPot Cup games, as his potential (both as a future AFC player and for marketing) deserves more game-time.. My guess is they’ll look to loan him to the best team that indicates they’ll give him some decent… Read more »
Cheers to the Rangers fans coming on to tell us their thoughts. Exciting to know people rate him.