The Roofe Tops - The Square Ball 31/10/21

LATE WINNER

Written by Steven York

Kemar Roofe was quite a big deal for Leeds United, because he joined at a time when we weren’t exactly known for trying to buy for the future. It might be normal for us now to bring in the likes of Sam Greenwood, Joffey Gelhardt and Crysencio Summerville, hoping they can make an impact in coming years, but Leeds used to think one season at a time. If a player couldn’t make an immediate impact, why bother?

Roofe had just won League Two Player of the Year after scoring an impressive 26 goals, helping Oxford earn promotion to League One. There would have to be an adjustment period, but we were hoping he’d build on his early successes and adapt quickly.

I won’t replay his time at Leeds, nor the events leading up to his departure. Roofe decided to move on and sign for Anderlecht in August 2019, for a fee reported around £7m. He scored seven goals in sixteen appearances for Anderlecht, a pretty decent return, but continued to struggle with injuries, as in his final season at Leeds.

In August 2020 he returned to these shores, signing for Rangers on a four-year deal when it seemed likely their first-choice striker Alfredo Morelos might be moving on. He elected to stay. How has our boy got on up in Glasgow?

What surprised me most was his transfer fee. Rangers officially reported it as undisclosed, but local press reported it in the region of £3.5m-£4m, which is astonishing value. Why did Anderlecht sell him at a loss? Supposedly he was one of their higher earners and they simply couldn’t reconcile that while he was struggling for fitness. A little short-sighted perhaps, but their loss was Rangers’ gain.

In his first season in the SPL he scored eight goals in his first fourteen appearances, despite coming off the back of a long calf injury that ruled him out for three months. He was injured for another month before scoring an audacious Beckham-esque wonder-goal from his own half in a Europa League game against Standard Liege. You’ve definitely seen it. He picks up the ball just outside his own eighteen-yard box, dribbles past two players and absolutely hammers it the length of the pitch, lobbing the keeper and securing the win. A definite contender for the Puskás Award.

Despite a strong start and memorable goal, the sentiment north of the border was that his first season was fairly stop-start. Injuries were preventing any real run of form. This meant only four goals from fourteen appearances between December and March. He became a controversial figure in the press, receiving a retrospective ban for an awful late challenge on St Johnstone’s Murray Davidson that the ref didn’t fully see, followed by a four-game ban for a horrible boot to the face on Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kolar. Strange, considering we know he’s not a reckless or violent player, but these two events in quick succession are how reputations are formed.

His first season may have been juddery, but twelve goals from sixteen starts in the SPL is a good return, and he was recognised as making an important contribution to Rangers’ title win, ending Celtic’s run of nine in a row. Roofe had the best goals-per-minute ratio of any player in the league with more than ten appearances, suggesting he could be a huge player for the club if he could overcome injury niggles and remain fit.

This season the media have been calling him ‘quietly effective’. Without the fanfare and celebration of Celtic’s Kyogo Furuhashi, Roofe has been scoring goals in big games, a quality that is sometimes overlooked. A player is far more valuable if they’re scoring the only goal in a tightly contested game in Europe, versus scoring the third in a 3-0 win. The stats look the same, but the impact is hugely different. It seems like Roofe is starting to get a reputation of being an under the radar big game player. With rumours of Furuhashi being worth £30m and noticed by some of Europe’s elite, questions are being asked about how much Roofe must be worth by comparison. Certainly more than £4m.

Alongside players like Morelos, he’s in the groove of what Steven Gerrard wants Rangers’ attacking line to be. Crucially, he’s picking up Man of the Match awards for dragging the club forwards in games they’re struggling to win, pressing high and hard, setting an example and having the confidence to take a penalty under pressure. It’s no surprise Marcelo Bielsa wanted him to stay at Leeds with those qualities.

Having recently declared for Jamaica he’s now off the mark internationally too, scoring his first goal in a win against Honduras in mid-October. You’d say things are going pretty well.

I’ll always reflect fondly on Roofe’s time at Leeds, especially that late winner in the comeback at Aston Villa, and while I understand there probably wasn’t a good place for him here — he’s too good to be behind Bamford, but Bamford is too good to be dropped — I’m still sad we didn’t retain his talents. Like many players who leave Leeds on good terms, I’ll continue to enjoy seeing him succeed elsewhere.

He’s only 28 too, plenty of time for him to put his injuries to bed and become one of the most valuable players in the SPL. I, for one, am rooting for him.