It’s not been an easy season for a number of players who were let go by Scottish Premiership challengers Rangers last year.
Mateusz Zukowski, yet to provide or an assist or score a single goal since returning to Poland, was dropped to the reserves at Slask Wroclaw. Antonio Colak is out of favour at Parma. Ditto Ryan Kent at Fenerbahce.
According toreports from South America, meanwhile, the future of Alfredo Morelos at Santos is in doubt already too.
At least Filip Helander is playing regularly. The same cannot be said of the aforementioned quartet. But playing and playing well are two very different things. And while the Sweden international is doing the former, the standard of his performances are leaving a lot to be desired.
Filip Helander’s post-Rangers career is not going to plan
Helander, who left Rangers on a free alongside Morelos, Kent and Scott Arfield when his contract expired in July, is now plying his trade for an Odense outfit hovering only two points above the relegation zone in the Danish Superligaen.
The veteran centre-half captained OB in their 0-0 draw against Lyngby last time out. And there is a growing feeling that the pressure is getting to a man who was expected to bring about happier times when he made his return to Scandinavia.
“It has been a lot for him,” Odense’s director of football, Bjorn Wesstrom, tells Fyens Stiftstidende. “Filip Helander is having a difficult period.”
Wesstrom has even indicated that OB may decide to take the armband off Helander, in the hope that this lifts a weight off the 30-year-old’s shoulders.
“When you have difficulty taking responsibility for yourself, it is of course difficult to be team captain and centre-back,” the director adds. “It has been a lot for him. We are looking to see if we can get more out of him.”
Defender could lose captain’s armband
Helander, at least, has put the injury problems which brought an end to his Rangers career behind him over in Denmark. The former Bologna man – who joined the Glasgow giants for a cool £3 million back in 2019 – has started every one of the last 16 Superligaen games.
But after being hauled off after just 36 minutes during a defeat to Vejle – Helander put out his misery after nearly being sent for a very early bath – it may not just be his role as team captain which is under threat.
“He had to go off, and he had to go quickly,” Odense coach Soren Krogh tells Bold. “I don’t think he himself is satisfied. I am certainly not satisfied either.
“He should have had a red card. A huge red card I would say. The officials didn’t give it. We were lucky with that, you could say.
“I had to react immediately and take him out as quickly as possible because we got off lightly there.”
