When Rangers were linked with Thijs Dallinga last summer, the immediate stumbling block was persuading him to come to Scotland but, in Sydney van Hooijdonk, Philippe Clement could land an almost perfect match.
The two Dutch strikers have similar characteristics but are currently enjoying totally different seasons as they look to impress in a major league.
Rangers may have missed out on Thijs Dallinga, however, his current form for Toulouse suggests Sydney van Hooijdonk could be a worthy replacement
The 23-year old’s situation at Bologna has already been covered by Rangers News but, when compared to one-time target Thijs Dallinga, there are eerily similar traits.
They are the same age, they both scored goals in the Eredivisie, are the same height at 6ft 4inches tall and prefer to be the target of attacks rather than involved in the build up as the data visual provided by DataMB shows.
Interestingly, the great Robert Lewandowski has an almost identical radar, just slightly better than the younger two, which you would expect.
The difference, is that former Rangers target Thijs Dallinga has kicked on following his £2.2m move to Toulouse and is scoring goals whilst Sydney van Hooijdonk is struggling for game time in Italy with Bologna.
Dallinga recently scored the winning goal at home against Liverpool and has been rewarded with a call up to the Netherlands squad, something that must seem miles away for Van Hooijdonk as he looks to emulate his old man.
With Rangers looking to go down a more data led approach to scouting with the department under reconstruction, this is the type of software that will identify and compile lists of targets.
Ironically, when Alfredo Morelos was signed by Rangers it was a player in the mould of Lewandowski that was the bench mark, maybe, Sydney van Hooijdonk is the player to finally replace El Bufalo after all.
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