The curious case of Tokelo Rantie

As a football supporter you see a host of players put on your team’s colours, and – naturally - some you remember better than others. There are your club legends who seem to stick with you through thick and thin. Kids that come to you on loan and look like they have a point to prove, but are gone just as you start to remember what they look like.

Then there are those players that seem to just effortlessly attract a cult following. These, in my limited experience, tend to be strikers. To attain this cult status they don’t necessarily have to be any good – in fact in most cases they aren’t – but they always have something that makes them stand out.

Perhaps they were from a country you had to look up on Wikipedia. Maybe they came with a high price tag. Or they just had a slightly unusual name.

I’ve seen some of these players turn out for AFC Bournemouth over the years of course. Chukki Eribenne with his one goal in 46 appearances, and who allegedly ended up working in a local Halfords. Bulky Dutchman Frank Demouge, who came in on the apparent recommendation of current chairman Max Denim and seemed to be perpetually injured.

In terms of cult status both these frontmen pale in comparison when it comes to one particular striker who has worn the red and black of Bournemouth though - with that man being none other than South African Tokelo Rantie.

Having being signed by Turkish side Genclerbirligi just a few days ago (looks like he had to go through an intense medical if the picture above is any indication), it now seems like a good time to look back at the diminutive enigma - and what he perhaps says about our transfer dealings in general.

Signed for sum alleged to be between 1.8 and 2.5 million pounds in the summer of 2013, he was our club record signing - and by quite some distance (we’d paid £800k for Matt Tubbs 18 months earlier).

Back then it was almost unthinkable that we’d pay that much to assemble an entire squad - let alone a single player. For all the time I had supported AFCB we had relied on signing free agents, players on loan, or bargain bin buys from non-league (case in point: current first teamer Harry Arter from Woking for £5,000).

With Maxim Denim’s dosh we were a very different club though, and it perhaps says it all that most AFC Bournemouth fans nowadays don’t even blink when we fork over 2 million pounds to sign a player to sit on our bench.

Back in 2013 I and the rest of the AFC Bournemouth fanbase were understandably incredibly excited to see this new signing in action. The thought process went much like “if the likes of Harry Arter and Wade Elliot only cost five grand, imagine what this guy - who has cost 400 times more - can do!”

Sadly we soon learnt that transfer fees were no indication of definite quality, and Rantie struggled despite getting plenty of first team minutes in our inaugural Championship season.

Being short in stature, Rantie relies on his quick feet and skills to beat opponents - but struggled to really dominate games, often being out muscled. This led to his confidence slowly ebbing away, so that when he did get chances he was often so keen to make an impression he rushed or panicked in possession.

Despite flashes of quality - see the goal against Burnley below - he eventually found himself on the subs bench, and was also struck by a string of injuries just when he was given chances to prove his worth. Add in the fact that strikers such as Lewis Grabban, Yann Kermorgant, Brett Pitman, and Callum Wilson were far more consistent it was no real surprise to see Tokelo reduced to making only fleeting cameos.

His lack of appearances subsequently helped give him a strangely mythical quality amongst some AFC Bournemouth fans, and often became the punchline of jokes. Seeing him warm up on the sidelines often resulted in the chant of “if Rantie scores, we’re on the pitch” from the stands - but sadly this was said in the knowledge that such a charge onto the turf was never really going to materialise.

Despite this, Alex Deutsch - AFCB supporter and almost undoubtably Tokelo Rantie’s number one fan (he paid £300 for a shirt signed by the striker) - says the South African’s obvious desire to be loved by the fans meant he was a player that was impossible to hate.

“TK had a smile that could melt hearts. After his goal against Huddersfield when he came on and scored the winner, he jumped into the crowd saying ‘he just wanted to give the fans a hug.’ You couldn’t stay mad at the lack of his footballing ability because of his adorable smile.”

Rantie was the first million pound plus player to disappoint AFC Bournemouth fans then, but worryingly he’s been far from the last - even though we signed him just three years ago.

Lee Tomlin, Glenn Murray, Juan Iturbe were all players that came to the club with a high price-tag (or even higher wages) for example - only to either disappoint, not fit in with Howe’s ethos, or both. Pros currently at the club who look a long way off fulfilling their transfer fees include Lewis Grabban and Benik Afobe too.

It would be generous to say our inconsistent transfer dealings are simply a result of the club not being well versed in how to spend oodles of cash, but it’s an issue that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later - especially as we seem to be spending our Premier League riches on little else, with the planned stadium expansion stalling and the ticketing system remaining an embarrassing shambles.

Tokelo Rantie may not be remembered by any English football fans outside of Bournemouth, but for followers of the Cherries he’ll always be a name that sticks in the back of your mind whenever we sign an expensive new forward - which seems to be a quite regular occurrence nowadays.

All the best in Turkey TK, and may you have more luck there than you did with us on the south coast.