ALLAN BID WAS BOLD AS BRASS
It does not say a lot for what they think of Scotty, blasts Stubbs
AT IT. Of course they are. Rangers will protest until they are light blue in the f ace, while some amenable bookmakers will even play their part by publicising the fact that Scott Allan is now odds- on for a ‘dream move’ to Ibrox.
But bidding £175,000 and then £225,000 for the Championship Player of the Year? Those weren’t serious offers even for a player in the final year of his contract. Their sole intention is almost certainly to unsettle the man most capable of doing them direct and indirect damage in the season ahead.
Pending the actual submission of a proper bid for one of the few players capable of bringing poise and vision to the Scottish second tier, Hibs are entitled to suspect that their Ibrox rivals are merely indulging in such tried-and-tested tactics from an earlier age.
Easter Road boss Alan Stubbs clearly thinks there is a bit of mischief-making at play, even if he is too diplomatic to come right out and accuse Rangers — not Mark Warburton, maybe, but some of those around the new manager — of deliberately trying to ferment unrest.
At least one report suggests Allan has expressed a desire to join his boyhood heroes right away. Insiders at Hibs tell a different tale, one of a player who understands the realpolitik of the situation — and is content to see out the final year of his deal.
Suffice to say that, whatever has or hasn’t been said, Allan will be the centre of even more than usual attention when the teams meet i n the Petrofac Training Cup tomorrow.
‘It’s irrelevant what I think of it,’ said Stubbs of that first figure quoted, before adding with a glint in his eye: ‘To be honest, it doesn’t say a lot for what they think of Scotty.
‘ It’s irrelevant whether i t’s £5,000, £50,000, £100,000. We’re not prepared to sell him. I can’t answer for what other clubs do.
‘We can’t stop other clubs from putting bids in but, once a bid comes in, we have a responsibility to respond to it — and we’ve responded to it.’
Stubbs, who knows Warburton quite well from their involvement — as coach and organiser, respectively — in the NextGen series of European football for developing youngsters, spoke with the Rangers boss personally by telephone yesterday.
‘I can’t answer for how people behave and respond, I can only answer questions on my club,’ he said when asked about the constant stream of overtures — whispered and, in some cases, shouted from the ramparts of Ibrox — towards Allan.
‘It is up to other clubs how they do their business. We will do ours how we see fit. Whenever I have come across Mark he has been a respectful guy and I don’t see him being anything other than that with regards to this situation.’
Stubbs has been around the game long enough to recognise a potential distraction when he sees it; and it goes back a long way before Raheem Sterling was even born. Rangers hardly stand alone in having used such methods in the past, always liable to be ‘preparing’ a bid for a key opposition player just before they face him on the field.
The former Celtic and Everton defender insists this latest tickle, timed perfectly before tomorrow’s clash in Leith, won’t derail a player whose career was in stasis before he arrived at Easter Road last summer.
‘He’s a professional footballer, these things happen,’ said Stubbs. ‘This is nothing new.
‘My relationship with Scotty is very good and because there’s been an offer, it’s not going to change the way I speak to him. He has always been very respectful. We’ve worked really well together.
‘This has been Scotty’s best year in professional football. There’s a reason for that. We’ve helped him get to a level we feel he’s capable of doing, and playing higher. It’s no coincidence and we feel we want him to carry it on for one more year.
‘ I speak to all the players, throughout the season, because they have highs and lows. They have times where they’re very confident and times where they need an arm round them.
‘Scotty has been no different to the rest of them. There’s no f avourable treatment towards him. I respect all my players. I put my arm round all the players and I speak to them. That’s the way I do it. It’s the way I am.
‘We are not talking about anything new here. The most important thing is that we as a club will stand firm.
‘We have got clear objectives for the season and what has happened will not deter us f rom those objectives. If anything, it has made us stronger.
‘Myself and Scott have a very good respect for each other and I don’t see any reason why that should change.’
Asked if Allan was fit to play t omorrow, Stubbs s ai d t he midfielder trained yesterday — and it’s hard to see him being left out of a game that could set the tone for the league campaign to come.
‘ We have played our preseason games and this is our first competitive game,’ said the manager. ‘In my mind, it is an important game.
‘There is a bit of deja vu from last season because we played them in the cup t hen. I t hink it is a fantastic tie and Hibs and Rangers are two of the biggest teams in the draw for the second year running.
‘ I watched Rangers against Burnley on Tuesday and they are definitely different in their style. They are looking to play out from the back more than what they have done.
‘They will get the ball down and they will play, and there is a lot more rotation within the group.
‘ Fo r parts of t he game, Rangers pl ayed really well. When you play that way you c an exploit things — and Mark will probably think the same about us, having watched Hibs.’ Invited to respond to Rangers striker Martyn Waghorn’s quotes, made on the strength of a pre-season game when he was still at Wigan, about Hibs being ‘basic’, Stubbs let out a kind of exasperated raspberry noise that suggested his opinion barely merited a serious response. A bit like the bids for Allan, then?
ALAN STUBBS was speaking as Petrofac Training Services launched its new #KeepUp Fanzone, which takes place at Saturday’s Petrofac Cup tie against Rangers at Easter Road.