As a slap to the faces goes, they don’t get much harsher than being booed BEFORE you’ve touched a ball.
But Cyriel Dessers can shrug off that cruel incident knowing that the same people who jeered him that day against Aberdeen have ended the last four games rushing to slap him on the back. The Rangers frontman continues to enjoy something of a love-hate relationship with the Ibrox faithful. For every slick finish like the one he scored in Seville last season against Real Betis or this week’s Old Trafford stunner, there’s been a clumsy pass or an ugly miss that have generated groans.
But things reached a new low earlier this month when the enigmatic Nigerian was targeted by a small but very vocal element of the Rangers faithful as he replaced Hamza Igamane seconds from the end of a Premiership win over Jimmy Thelin’s Dons. Whether it was unhappiness over the withdrawal of the club’s new Moroccan poster boy or lingering resentment over the fact Dessers did not step up to take a penalty against Celtic in last month’s ill-fated shoot-out with Celtic in the League Cup Final, only those responsible can explain their reasoning.
What’s clear is that Dessers didn’t enjoy the spiteful abuse. But as has been clear throughout his 18 months in Glasgow, the 30-year-old isn’t someone who dwells on the negatives.
It’s that ability to bounce back from the moments that have brought him critics that have ensured he’s still hanging around at Ibrox, while figures who signed around the same time such as Sam Lammers and Jose Cifuentes have long been shipped out.
And he’s certainly re-emerging as an Ibrox force having lost his place to Igamane. It didn’t take him long to get going, hushing the boo boys just minutes after coming on against Aberdeen. He may have missed an incredible sitter in his next outing against Fraserburgh but that didn’t prevent him coming back for his first ever Gers hat-trick.
And he’s continued to silence his critics this week by scoring a couple of peaches against Manchester United and their Dundee namesakes. That Tannadice effort was his sixth in the space of four games.
With 18 now for the season, it means Dessers has hit 40 goals in a season and a half in Scotland – not bad for someone continually written off as a flop. Looking back on that brutal moment as he lined up to take the pitch against the Dons, Dessers said: “Yeah, that’s not easy. That’s quite hard to take.
“But on the other hand, I’ve had a lot of positive interaction as well with fans around the stadium in the city, and I try to take that to heart. And when I get out there, I just want to fight along with my teammates who I see every day, who respect me, who know the effort I put in in the training ground and then to win like Sunday’s against Dundee United. That just makes me very happy.”
Asked if he felt he had made those fans who booed him eat their words, he replied: “I don’t know. I know at this club, things can change very fast as well.
“For example, the stick that a player like James Tavernier gets sometimes, he’s a Hall of Fame player, he has scored more than 100 goals for this club, 400 games, all of this. And then I’m thinking, maybe there will always be something to talk about.
“But I just try to enjoy the beautiful moments at this club and I’m lucky that I have plenty of these and those are way more important to me than the few negative moments. I feel like I’m in a good place.
“I’ve been feeling that for a couple of weeks. I’ve been working hard on and off the pitch and then then if you get the moments like this, to show it, and then you need to show it.”
In terms of beauty, it’s hard to separate the sweet finish Dessers buried against Rubin Amorim’s Red Devils from the equally precise left-foot strike he fired home to finish off the Tangerines at Tannadice. But having seen Bruno Fernandes’ steal the show at the Theatre of Dreams, Dessers was just relieved Sunday’s goal came with the reward of three-points as Gers hit back from a goal down to seal a 3-1 victory.
He said: “Obviously I think it was good to score the goal. I think we should have scored it a little bit earlier to give us, to give ourselves a little bit more peace of mind, but it was good to finish the game off there.
“It was a mixed feeling on Thursday. We showed with a lot of young guys, what we were able to. They were thrown in, and they performed at the highest stage at Old Trafford.
“But then obviously you lose the point at the end, which hurts, but also, in a way, gave us confidence to bounce back. And I think also on Sunday, we showed that like you go 1-0 down, but to bounce back like this, against a good team, I can see why they are third in the league, to bounce back like that, I think it’s a massive win for us.
“I know there is confidence in the team. Last season, we did it on a lot of occasions. It’s just like, get it out there. And I think Sunday was perfect example.
“If you see how we come out of the dressing room for the second half, for example, then immediately we showed that we were there, we scored a goal and then I think we had control of the game.”