Football is often a game of ‘what could have been’ and that will have been the case for any Everton fans who found themselves glued to what was the Scottish Premiership’s best game of the season this weekend.
The title race north of the border is a rare three-horse race this season, with Hearts looking to cash in on the instability of the two Old Firm clubs, who have employed five managers between them since October.
The Edinburgh side began the weekend with a five and six-point lead over Rangers and Celtic, respectively as they looked to dethrone the latter after consecutive title wins.
Former Everton flop picks his moment
If Rangers were to reignite this title race, this was the game to do it and not for the first time this season, they saw a previously-maligned figure step up and make the difference.
Striker Youssef Chermiti was signed by Rangers from Everton for a fee of £8 million in the summer, ending a two-year spell on Merseyside which saw the Portuguese make 25 appearances and fail to score a single goal following his £11.5 million transfer from Sporting in August 2023.
A slow start at Ibrox in which the forward scored just two goals before Christmas, meant that Chermiti was used as something of a stick to beat former sporting director Kevin Thelwell with.
But a brace against Celtic in the New Year’s derby offered promise and on Sunday, he delivered in the club’s biggest game of the league campaign so far.
The former Everton man scored his first-ever career hat-trick as the Gers claimed a huge 4-2 win over Hearts and cut the gap at the top of the table to just two points.
“[Youssef Chermiti scored] three goals, he worked hard for the group,” Rangers boss Danny Rohl said following the victory. “I always believe in him.
“My job is now to keep him hungry and he will be hungry because he'll want to score more but big games are for big players and today he showed how big he is."
Sunday’s performance suggests that Thelwell, who, alongside chief executive Patrick Stewart paid the price for Rangers’ poor start to the season when they were sacked in November, could perhaps end up being justified in his assessment of Chermiti and his faith that he had signed a goalscorer, despite the forward’s Everton dry spell.
"Sometimes you have to take a player that you think is at the start of their journey, grow and develop them and then make that step for us and help us to win going forwards,” he said back in October.
"Physically, he is a top, top performer. We think in due course in a particular style of play it will help him score goals and hopefully you will see the best of him."
