Soon after Matija Frigan completed a £5 million deal to KVC Westerlo during the summer transfer window, Croatian coach Zlatko Dalic voiced his worries that the former Rangers target had joined the wrong team at the wrong time.
“Frigan had an amazing time in Rijeka.” However, given that he is not the best player in the league, perhaps he shouldn’t have joined that club,” Dalic, the runner-up in the 2018 World Cup, said to MAX Sport at the beginning of September.
“Moreover, he doesn’t play attacking football all the time, which he needs to.”
After two months, Dalic’s worries seem more and more prescient. Matija Frigan has only scored twice in 10 Jupiler League games thus far. He was linked to Rangers and was the target of an offer from Sunderland before transferring to Belgium for a club-record price.
Even worse, Frigan hasn’t been in the Westerlo squad for either of their two league victories this season, despite the team being in second place after 13 games.
Rangers wanted Matija Frigan before Belgium switch
There are similarities, meanwhile, with the situation facing embattled head coach Jonas de Roeck at Westerlo and the one Mick Beale was forced to contend with before his Ibrox sacking. Bad performances underpinned by even worse business in the transfer market.
For Beale, the big-money acquisitions of Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers and co proved to be more of a hindrance than a help, and De Roeck could say the same with some of Westerlo’s own misfiring summer signings.
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