John Souttar didn’t want to leave Hearts for Rangers on the cheap – Robbie Neilson
John Souttar didn’t want to leave Hearts for Rangers in a cut-price deal during the January transfer window, according to manager Robbie Neilson.
The central defender signed a pre-contract agreement with Rangers during the window that will see him move to Ibrox in the summer on a free transfer.
But Rangers had two bids rejected to bring him in early, with Hearts holding out for a fee of around £500,000.
With Hearts facing Rangers this weekend, manager Neilson has revealed, via Daily Record, that Souttar will be available for selection against his future employers and that he didn’t want to leave on a cut-price deal.
“John should be available for selection,” he said. “He hasn’t trained but we expect him back tomorrow and if he gets through that he’ll be fine.
“I’ll be more than happy to play him, he’s one of our best players and one of the reasons we fought so hard to keep him here until the summer.
“He’s so important to us and if he’s ready he’ll play. John has been 100 per cent professional right the way through.
“He was very strong with us as well and didn’t want to go on the cheap and wanted us to get what we deserved.
“We didn’t get that offer so we made the decision to keep him and he’s more than happy to do that for us.”
Needed
It didn’t seem like Rangers massively needed Souttar to come in as a priority during the January window but it turns out maybe they did.
Rangers have conceded six goals in their last two games and have dropped down to second place in the Premiership table since the resumption of the league, with just one win in their four league games.
Souttar is expected to be the long-term replacement for Connor Goldson but pairing them together for six months could have been ideal.
It’s a nice gesture from Souttar to not force a move away from the club that helped him to recover from three serious injuries and nurtured him back to full fitness to earn the move.
Rangers probably should have paid up to get the deal done in January, but now they’ll have to find a way to beat him and Hearts to get their title chase back on track.
In other Rangers news, Ross Wilson reveals Rangers started work on major deadline day deal last week