There should be Nai hard feelings over Gers return

HEARTS won their battle with Rangers in the last transfer window when they stood firm over the sale of Jamie Walker.

Knocking back three bids for the winger from Ibrox, the final offer of around £500,000 didn’t meet their £1million valuation of the player.

Walker moved on from Tynecastle this week after joining English League One side Wigan in a £300,000 deal.

Jambos boss Craig Levein, owner Ann Budge and the Hearts fans can decide whether it was worth sacrificing £200,000 for his 14 appearances and two goals in the four months that followed. The main thing for Hearts is the 24-year-old hasn’t ended up at one of their Premiership rivals.

After missing out on the final day of the transfer window in the summer, the feeling was Rangers would return and sign Walker on a pre-contract this month. But a change of manager might have altered that.

Hearts would then have been open to criticism for not taking the cash at the time so they can be reasonably happy with how it panned out, apart from taking a £200,000 hit.

The clubs could now go head to head again for the signature of Steven Naismith.

Levein knows what Naismith has to offer after working with him in the Scotland squad and it’s no surprise he has made his move for the 31-year-old available on loan from Norwich.

So why not Graeme Murty? In a football sense a return to Ibrox is a no-brainer given his ability and the type of character he is.

Naismith has already made it clear he would be open to signing for the club where he spent five years after joining from Kilmarnock. And as well as contributing on the park could use his experience to help the kids at Murray Park.

The one problem is the fans remain split on Naismith due to the manner of his departure in 2012 when he refused to be part of Charles Green’s regime.

Plenty wouldn’t allow him to walk back into Ibrox for that reason but Naismith has apologised and admitted he was wrong to describe Rangers as a new club during an emotional press conference before signing for Everton.

His final season at Ibrox was wrecked by a cruciate injury at a time when he was the league’s top scorer.

That pain was nothing compared to the hell of administration that followed later that season with Naismith one of the first to agree to a 75 per cent pay cut to avoid office staff cuts.

Surely supporters can’t hold the manner of Naismith’s departure against him forever and, regardless, Murty should be brave enough to make the signing if he

Return to Ibrox is a no-brainer given his ability and type of character

believes he would do a job. Walter Smith ignored angry supporter protestations over the signing of Kenny Miller after he’d gone to Celtic following his departure for Rangers.

That move didn’t work out too badly. The veteran striker is back for a third spell and his injury means signing Naismith would make even more sense.

When you consider the money spent in the summer by players who couldn’t cut it – Dalcio took criticism after his performance in Thursday’s Florida friendly – then it’s fair to say Naismith would be a huge step up.

It remains to be seen if Gers fancy scrapping it out with Hearts for him but it makes perfect sense and fans should forgive even if they can’t forget his departure.