Neilson tells why Souttar’s AWOL
Robbie Neilson insists Ran g e r s - b o u n d Joh n Souttar missed Hearts’ Scottish Cup rout of Auchinleck through injury – and had nothing to do with his upcoming move to Ibrox.
Neilson spoke out f o l l ow i n g his s i d e’s emphatic victory.
Souttar sat it out with a view to being fully fit for Wednesday night’s visit of Celtic to Tynecastle in the Premiership.
And the Jambos gaffer, who’s already turned down a recent bid from Rangers, left nobody in any doubt that if they wanted to sign Souttar before the end of this transfer window, they would need to raise the stakes considerably.
Neilson said: “John has a problem with his ankle after the game the other night.
“I k n ow everyone thinks they know what’s happening.
“But it was on his Achilles so we felt there
was no point bringing him down here.
“We’ll just keep him up there and available for Wednesday unless things change.
“We’ve had a bid in, which has been knocked out the ball park. But we will wait to see if anything else comes in.
“We value John very, very highly, so if anyone is going to take him in this window they will need to pay for him because we are aiming for the Scottish Cup and European football.
“We need to keep our best players here.
“He will be here unless something else comes in that is suitable for us.”
Me a n w h i l e, Ta l b o t boss Tommy Sloan said: “There’s a big gulf in class for us.
“We we re playing against top- class players and it showed.
“I was a wee bit disappointed that we lost 5- 0, and not one of my players got booked.
“I’d rather we were a bit more aggressive, even if it took a booking to upset somebody.”