Thelwell joined from Everton in June, but he lasted just six months at Ibrox, as he was sacked in November.

His role in bringing in Russell Martin as manager, and spending £30million on players who struggled to thrive in Scottish football, played a huge part in his exit.

However, one of those signings is starting to turn the page, and play a key role as the Gers chase the Scottish Premiership title.

Youssef Chermiti starting to show why Thelwell brought him to Rangers

The main anger with the former Toffees executive was the fact that he was around £8m to sign Youssef Chermiti.

The Portugal Under-21 forward had scored no goals in 24 senior appearances for the Blues in his time on Merseyside.

However, his signing is starting to vindicate Thelwell, as he is proving to be a big-game player in the Scottish game.

The 21-year-old scored a brace in a 3-1 win over Celtic in January, which put Danny Rohl‘s side right back into title contention.

His latest display was his finest hour, though, as he scored a hat-trick against Hearts to send the Gers two points behind Derek McInnes’ side at the top.

The Sofascore graphic above shows just how good the young striker performed against the league leaders in a pivotal contest.

Was Thelwell judged too quickly at Rangers?

Rangers fans seemed to get angrier the longer that he was in the role, with every move seeming to be the wrong one.

He was not judged too quickly, as several decisions baffled, such as hiring his own son as the club’s head of recruitment.

Spending such a huge amount of money on the Premier League flop did not look like a wise decision at the time, and he had done little to justify the fee before the Celtic game.

The deals to bring Oliver Antman and Thelo Aasgaard to Govan were also much maligned, as the £4m and £3.5m figures were seen as too much.

However, the recent form of Chermiti may well change the way that he is perceived in the coming months, especially if Rohl’s side go on to lift the championship in May after such a miserable start to the campaign.

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