Wright may have to bite the bullet and accept O’Halloran’s Ibrox return
RANGERS want Michael O’Halloran back at Ibrox next month after his st Johnstone loan spell ends. The winger — a £500,000 Mark Warburton signing from saints — found himself out of favour under Portuguese flop Pedro Caixhina and jumped at the chance of a return to Perth in the summer. He got off to a flier at his former club and secured the august Player of the Month award before an ankle injury hampered his progress. saints manager Tommy Wright is keen to retain his services until the summer — but he revealed Rangers director of football Mark allen wants to bring the player, whose deal at Ibrox runs out in 2020, back into the fold. ‘The indication from Rangers is they want Michael back,’ said Wright. ‘But part of that process will be down to what he wants to do as well. ‘I want to keep him but Mark allen indicated that they want him to head back to Ibrox. ‘so, we will have to see what happens when Michael sits down with them for talks. ‘If he’s just going back there to be a bit-part player then it might be in everyone’s interests for him to come back here. If he goes we will have to replace him but it’s a case right now of just waiting to see what happens.
‘It will be down to what Rangers want to do and if he can come back here, then it will be down to the chairman and whether we have the money to keep him until the summer.
‘We will just have to see what next month brings.’
Wright is eager to build on last weekend’s 3-1 win over Rangers but admits tomorrow’s visitors Hearts are a tough proposition under Craig Levein.
‘Hearts got a fantastic result last weekend against Celtic and deserved all the headlines they got,’ he said. ‘It maybe knocked us off the back pages after our win at Ibrox the day before.
‘Hearts deserved to win. Celtic were always going to lose at some point and it took an excellent, high-energy display from Craig’s team to do it.
‘He will be delighted with the way they played and will come here looking to build on that.
‘I’m glad to see him back in the dugout. The last three managers appointed in the Premiership have all been experienced guys in Craig, Owen Coyle and stevie Clarke.
‘That has bucked the trend from previous years and that’s a positive. The purists might disagree with the way Craig sets his team up but I like the way he does it. They are hard to beat.’