“Not a chance” – Rangers fans divided over massive club decision
With last night’s breaking story that Hibs want Glenn Middleton on loan, the immediate and understandable response from most Rangers fans is ‘GTF’.
We’re not going to forget the Scott Allan fiasco in a hurry, nor, to a lesser extent, the Jason Cummings one.
And that is entirely understandable.
Dutch side Breda also want the flying winger, and it’s evident that he is not going to play a huge role at Ibrox this season.
But either way, Hibs’ Paul Heckingbottom has confirmed he wants the pacy attacker for the season.
So, what is the correct response?
Well, while emotion usually plays a big part in knee jerk reacting ‘no’ to this, there is a significant difference between now and when the Allan farce was in full flow – Allan Stubbs was manager, and Rod Petrie was chairman.
With new ownership and management, while Hibs aren’t exactly overnight a completely new club, they aren’t filled with the toxic nonsense they had a few years ago. And thus any axe fans have to grind should not strictly be with Hibs, but with those who behaved so poorly all those years ago.
And they’re no longer at Easter Road.
So, it’s worth bearing that in mind.
More realistically, and slightly less emotional is the fact Hibs are a strong bet to finish top four, or even higher.
But that makes them a threat, and a rival – and do we really want to give a rival a boost by giving them a talented player? Obviously any loan would have the caveat that he’d be ineligible to play against us, but he will still be a part of any strong season they have, and any threat to us, directly or not.
But equally, strengthening Hibs makes them a bigger threat to Celtic and Aberdeen, and that may be worth a punt, given what damage Middleton could do against our two main rivals in his quest to prove himself good enough for us.
It’s an interesting one, and we’ll leave it to you to express your own thoughts.