We’re almost reaching the halfway mark of the 2018/19 Scottish Premiership campaign. Celtic are back on top of the league after a slow start to the season while Hearts have continued their strong start under Craig Levein and so have Rangers.
Aberdeen, runners-up in the last two seasons, find themselves stationed in the sixth place, while Motherwell, Hamilton Academical and St. Mirren are fighting the relegation battle along with Dundee FC at the bottom end of the table.
The Scottish Premiership saw a flurry of transfer activity in the summer window. While a number of players have gone on to make a significant impact for their new clubs, helping them to their respective positions in the tables, there have been a handful who have failed to click as expected.
And here, we look at three signings who arrived with immense expectations but haven’t been able to live up to them.
The 21-year-old Nigerian striker arrived at the Ibrox on a season-long loan from AS Roma as Steven Gerrard looked to boost up his options in the final third. However, it would be only fair to say that the move has backfired for both the player and the club.
So far in his time with Rangers, Sadiq has managed just 4 appearances across all competitions, only one of which has been a start. The striker has seen just 116 minutes of action on the field and has failed to score a single goal or lay an assist in that time.
With Alfredo Morelos and Kyle Lafferty miles ahead of him in the pecking order for Gerrard’s side, it does seem highly unlikely that the 21-year-old’s game time will improve, unless an injury rules out the aforementioned pair for a lengthy spell.
Another young striker who arrived in Scotland with lots of expectations in the summer, Wilson’s loan move to Aberdeen from Manchester United was supposed to be the forward’s stepping stone to earning a new contract at his parent club and breaking into the first-team.
However, his short spell so far at the Pittodrie has been anything but that. Since arriving at the club, the 22-year-old has managed just two goals in nine appearances across all competitions, averaging a goal every 304 minutes.
Wilson has had to deal with a couple of minor injury issues this term and despite his poor return in front of goal, the 22-year-old continues to enjoy the trust of the Dons’ manager Derek McInnes. However, if things don’t improve soon enough, the season could end up being a mediocre one for both the club and the player.
After his controversial exit from Rangers, veteran forward Kenny Miller was snapped up by newly promoted side Livingston FC and was made the player-manager at the club. However, the arrangement lasted for just a little over seven weeks.
While he did help Livi finish top of their section in the League Cup, Miller just managed a solitary goal and an assist in his 7 games. Having left Livingston, the former Scotland international linked up with Dundee FC in September, but has struggled to make a major impact for the bottom-dwellers of the Premiership.
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Miller took two months to open his goalscoring account for the Dees, scoring in a 1-1 draw against St. Mirren this past weekend in what was his 8th appearance. Furthermore, he has already picked up a red card during his spell with the club. Safe to say that the 38-year old hasn’t made the impact that Dundee were hoping for as they battle relegation.
