Neilson will happily send Souttar into Ibrox battle

ROBBIE NEILSON has insisted he will have no hesitation in fielding John Souttar against Rangers as the Tynecastle side aim to further dent the Ibrox club’s title ambitions.

Souttar has signed a pre-contract agreement to move to the Scottish champions this summer but Rangers’ bids to sign the Scotland international permanently last month were unsatisfactory and kicked out by Hearts.

However, Neilson would have no problem picking Souttar tomorrow for the away clash against the Ibrox club, who dropped to second place in the Premiership after Wednesday night’s 3-0 Old Firm thrashing at Celtic Park.

Neilson said: ‘I expect John to be fit. He did a wee bit of running on Friday. Hopefully, he gets through that and then he’ll train on Saturday with a view to being available.

‘It’s not a big decision. John is one of our best players and you want your best players to play. If he’s fit, he plays. If he’s not fit, he won’t play.

‘John knows the situation and he has dealt with it very well. He’s a top professional and a top player. I know when he goes out on the pitch he will give 100 per cent. So I don’t have any qualms about it at all.

‘I’ve spoken to him almost every day for the last month about where he is and how he is feeling and about his injuries, about playing and about the situation. Everything is good.’

Hearts set a price of £500,000 if Souttar was to leave permanently for Rangers last month.

Neilson revealed that the defender was keen not to depart in a cut-price move, saying: ‘John was strong with us that he didn’t want to go on the cheap.

‘Right from the start when we knew this was happening, we spoke to him and said: “This is what we are looking for.”

‘John agreed with it but the fee never came. If the money doesn’t get paid, then the player doesn’t go.

‘It’s not for me to say (what the bids were) but they were not what we wanted. But John has been great right the way through. He understands the situation.

‘He’s been here for a number of years and his main objective now is, first and foremost, to get us European football and, secondly, stay in the Scotland set-up.

‘If he continues to play the way he has been playing, he will do that.’

Hearts drew 1-1 on their last trip to Ibrox back in October but Neilson is building a team he hopes is capable of claiming three points away to Celtic and Rangers.

‘Winning in Glasgow is something we spoke about at the start of the season,’ he said. ‘It is something we want to do.

‘It has been a long, long time since Hearts have been able to do that consistently and we have still not done it. We’ve had a decent season so far but that remains an objective and we want to do that this year. We have another opportunity on Sunday.

‘Will Rangers be hurting after losing to Celtic? I think that the Motherwell v Celtic game kicking off at 1.30pm will have more of a bearing on things. If Motherwell get something, the crowd at Ibrox could be up for it. But if it goes the other way, then it might be different.’

Neilson was left angered by referee Don Robertson’s failure to award Hearts two penalties during Tuesday night’s goalless Edinburgh derby against Hibs at Easter Road.

The Tynecastle boss has also been critical of decisions against his team in matches against Auchinleck Talbot and Celtic.

On his side’s last trip to Ibrox, he coined one of the quotes of the season when he blamed the ‘Glasgow long blink’ for referee Robertson’s failure to send off Juninho Bacuna for grabbing Hearts defender Stephen Kingsley by the throat.

He hopes Hearts are not on the wrong end of any fresh controversies in Govan tomorrow.

‘I am very, very hopeful,’ he said. ‘I am hoping we won’t get any of those decisions again — or non-decisions.’