RYAN Kent has become accustomed to life on the road in recent years. At Ibrox, he has found a home from home.
The first two loan spells of his career with Coventry City and Barnsley gave Kent a chance to showcase his talents and enhance his reputation but his more recent moves haven’t exactly gone to plan.
He signed a new long-term deal with Liverpool in the summer of 2017 before joining SC Freiburg but he would return to Anfield having made just six appearances. When he left once again, his fortunes didn’t improve and a season at Bristol City yielded only 10 outings as his progress appeared to stall.
Now, though, Kent is motoring once again. Reunited with Steven Gerrard in the summer, the winger quickly became an integral part of the side that the Liverpool legend built and neither he nor Rangers have looked back. If Gerrard gets his wish, Kent will remain part of his plans beyond the summer as Rangers look to strike a deal to retain his services. The here and now is what matters most, however.
“This is the most settled I have been at a club, just with the way I have been welcomed into the team and the people that I have got around me, like the coaches,” Kent said. “I feel really settled here and I am enjoying my football, which is the main thing. When you are in an environment where you are comfortable, where you are enjoying your football, that is when you get the best performances out of your game.”
Kent was thrown in at the deep end in July as he started the Europa League win away to Osijek just hours after putting pen-to-paper on a deal with Rangers. The improvement in Gerrard’s side since then is clear, and Kent has come on just as impressively.
His performance in the Old Firm win over Celtic last month was the best of his Ibrox career. On the biggest stage of his career, the 22-year-old rose to the occasion.
“It was definitely the best feeling I have had in football, just with the scale of the game and the result with what it meant to the fans and all the players,” Kent said. “I have bought into Rangers since I have got here, it is an unbelievable club, the fans are brilliant.
“With all the players in the team now, it is a really good squad. When you are playing in those games, the big derby games, it makes you realise what a big club it is.”
Kent wasn’t the only member of Gerrard’s side that raised the bar against Celtic as Rangers moved level on points with their Old Firm rivals at the top of the Premiership standings. It was a victory that was more than merited as the score failed to tell the full take of Rangers’ dominance on the day.
It was a match that Kent almost missed, though. Separate hamstring injuries sustained against St Mirren and Dundee threatened to rule him out at Ibrox but, somehow, he was able to thrive rather than just survive.
“A lot,” Kent said when asked how much he had to push himself to be able to play in the Old Firm game. “I only trained two times before that game so it was touch and go to see whether I would get back for the game. I managed to, and I managed to play 90 minutes as well. I don’t think I expected to play the full 90 minutes but in those type of games the adrenaline gets you through it more than anything.”
The feelgood factor from that derby win coursed through the veins of the Rangers support during the winter shutdown and gave Gerrard’s side the perfect platform upon which to build in the Premiership when they face Kilmarnock on Wednesday evening.
The exertions of the first half of the season certainly took their toll on the Light Blues squad and a training camp in Tenerife proved the perfect way to recharge and refocus ahead of a potentially historic few months at Ibrox.
“It was probably a much-needed break for a lot of the boys because we have played a lot of games recently,” Kent told RangersTV. “It was nice to get some sun and for everyone to get together again and meet the new players in the squad as well.
“Possibly [it came at a bad time for me personally], especially after a good performance and a good victory. But it was probably a much-needed break for myself, even though I had been out for two months. Everything happened quite quickly coming back from my injury so it was good to get some rest.
“I definitely think the sessions out in Tenerife were quite difficult and it will stand us in good stead for the second half of the season.”
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