Andreas Skov Olsen walked down the Ibrox tunnel to a rapturous reception and held his hands aloft to introduce himself to a support who were ready to welcome a new hero into their hearts.
It is perhaps being unkind to say that it has all been downhill from there for the Dane. Yet it is not unfair to suggest that the dream and the reality have proven to be somewhat different propositions for Rangers. On Sunday, there was only a smattering of applause for Skov Olsen as he made another early exit in what turned out to be a Scottish Cup defeat to Celtic.
There were fitness reasons behind the decisions to substitute Skov Olsen during his first handful of appearances for Rangers. He arrived in Glasgow to understandably high acclaim but was short of match sharpness after operating on the fringes at Wolfsburg for the first half of the season.
In both Old Firm fixtures, as it has been too often of late, it was his form that was an issue. His assist for Youssef Chermiti’s overhead kick was the second of his Rangers career, following a cross from the right that the Portuguese headed home against Hearts. His only goal so far was a fine finish in the win over Kilmarnock.
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Those moments have been fleeting. They show Skov Olsen’s undoubted talent but only serve to infuriate rather than inspire. Just where has that level of influence been week after week?
Supporters have rightly become frustrated with the 26-year-old. If the issues are not – given what he has done over the course of his career – technical ones, then they must be physical or mental. Either scenario does not bode well for Danny Rohl right now.
One source at Club Brugge told the Rangers Review how staff had to work hard to put Skov Olsen in the right frame of mind to perform at his best. He requires clear goals and a route to achieving them. Unless he feels good in mind and body, the heights that are so attainable will not be reached.
Few in the game know the forward better than Flemming Pedersen, his former manager at FC Nordsjælland. So, how do you get the best out of Andreas Skov Olsen?
“You get the best out of him if you try to understand him and understand the way he thinks and the way he sees himself,” Pedersen tells the Rangers Review. “When you have this understanding and you have this relation, then you can start working with him and try and tell him 'I also see this in you and I think you could also do this.'
“But it is getting into his head and he needs support and now obviously he also needs game time to get started again, to get back into good football fitness. But he has a very strong view of himself and what he is good at and it is very important that [you] allow him to express himself.
“That is as a right winger who can go both inside and outside, but play him wide. That's where he feels most comfortable and can use his big strengths in the best possible way.
“Because he can accelerate, and as we all know, he can go both ways. He has a really good right foot for crosses, especially when he goes to challenge one-v-sone and accelerates to the goalline.
“When it happened [and he signed for Rangers], I definitely and I still think it's a very good move for him. So if he is not going to make a big impact, I would be very surprised.”
It is rare for managers these days to speak about a player before a deal has been completed. When such questions are asked in press conferences, they are usually side-stepped. Rohl was different during the pursuit of Skov Olsen, however, and was clearly enthused about what the former Bologna and Club Brugge winger would bring to Rangers even before pen was put to paper.
The pursuit had been a lengthy one for the club. As documented by the Rangers Review, interest had been held in Skov Olsen for several years and he was tracked during his time in Denmark and Belgium, coming close to joining on loan in 2020. Brugge had attempted to sign him before he made the switch to Italy, and he went on to become the most valuable player in the Pro League after 79 goal involvements in 124 matches when he finally arrived at the Jan Breydel Stadium three years later.
Rohl spoke about that period in Skov Olsen’s career and how Rangers had to try and replicate it after agreeing a loan deal. Speaking ahead of the second Old Firm, the German did not confirm if he was ready to push the button on making that arrangement permanent, for a fee believed to be around £9million.
There is not exactly a groundswell from supporters, either. They need convincing. If Rohl and Skov Olsen have faith in both themselves and each other, then the remaining nine matches this season must be significantly better than the eight that have come and gone.
“Yes, he is not easy because you have to approach him, he is not an extrovert that just tells everyone what he thinks and so on,” Pedersen, now the technical director at FC Nordsjælland, says when asked what it is like to man-manage Skov Olsen. “He is more introverted and you need to approach him more to find out his thought processes.
“From my point of view, yes, this is an important part of management. But I also know that there could be coaches and managers disagreeing and saying it is more black and white, the players just need to do what I am telling them. But we still have these managers in the football world.
“It is always when you sign a player, no matter his age and experience, that you need to have patience to build him up again, especially when he has not played regularly.
“With Andy, he also has a history of different injuries and again, you need to consider this and then build him up maybe more slowly than another player that is not having this kind of injury history. Because fans think, ‘Oh, we bought this player and he can just perform from day one.’
“But we have seen in the Danish Superliga, we have seen top players arriving and they need typically six months before they get used to the league and before they are getting rebuilt and so they can really perform.”
Unfortunately for Skov Olsen, slow and steady will not win the race. He was signed to be a game-changer, a difference-maker. It was a statement of intent, a gamble that had to pay off.
Andreas Skov Olsen's first in Light Blue 👏
How many SPFL goals will the @RangersFC loanee grab this season? pic.twitter.com/Cv8GbiJIOH— SPFL (@spfl) February 5, 2026
If he had been signed last summer, he would have been given the grace period that was afforded to Vaclav Cerny, who took around three months to show his best form. A deal for the Czech was not one that Rangers wished to pursue – more for financial reasons than football ones – and the coming weeks will be decisive for Skov Olsen.
In the first half of the season, he featured in just 12 Wolfsburg squads in the Bundesliga and started on just four occasions. His final three minutes of action came in early November before a combination of omission and injury brought an end to a somewhat ill-fated period of his career.
The views on him are perhaps shaped by the expectations given that so much seemed destined to follow his arrival in Glasgow. The comparisons with Brian Laudrup have been unfair throughout his career. In an interview with the Rangers Review last week, Peter Lovenkrands outlined the difficulties that he endured with the same narrative as he expressed his sympathy for and faith in Skov Olsen.
Pedersen will give him that backing, too. At 26, it feels like Skov Olsen has been around for a long time, but still has so much to give in the game.
Injury issues at the start of his career almost curtailed it completely. If he can find his feet, his mentor is confident he can let them talk the talk once again.
“Yes, that impacted him that much,” Pedersen says of a hip complaint that required surgery after the decision was made with his father for him to step away from the game for a period. “So he was not sure if he ever wanted or could get back into playing football. So he was away, and it impacted him for 18 months or so.
“So that was serious and he went through an operation. But again, these setbacks, I also think, when you really miss the game, or you cannot play, then you also find out how much the game means to you. But of course, you can get stronger after having these setbacks and I think Andy definitely got stronger and learned from it.
“But on the other hand, you can always have a little in the back of your head that there can be some worrying about injuries. And that's why I really hope that he can excel here in Rangers and get back to playing his game.
“Because when he performs well, when he is fit and all this, he is performing on a very high level and he can decide a game on himself because he is so good in one-vs-one situations and so good at scoring goals with his left foot.”
Rangers need to see more of those moments, and quickly. On the night that he was presented to the crowd and held his first media conference, Skov Olsen was asked if he was hopeful that his stay in Glasgow could be extended come the summer. ‘Definitely’ was his answer.
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The need for this move to work out for all parties is clear. It is not too late for Skov Olsen. If there is no Premiership title, there will most likely be no long-term deal. Rangers negotiated an option rather than an obligation for good reason and Rohl and the recruitment team will hold the cards come the end of the campaign.
“That will be decisive for his career now to find a club and hopefully Rangers, where he can settle for a longer time and again find his level together with his team-mates in Rangers,” Pedersen says. “Because it's never good for a player to go from club to club every six months, 12 months. You need stability on the pitch but you also need stability off the pitch.
“He has always had a good family around him that supports him and one of his best friends is Mikkel Damsgaard from Brentford. Mikkel has also, in his career, as we are all aware, been unlucky with injuries.
"He has a former teammate and a very close friend who can help each other and tell about how they are feeling and support each other. So all I would say is that his network is good.”
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