Bear with us on this one, and don’t jump immediately on our necks for suggesting it, but yes, Scott Allan is out of contract this summer….
Ok, we get it, half of you are foaming at the mouths about to launch a spitting rage-infused rejection of this idea, and the other half are smiling wondering what possible case we could have for suggesting this.
The reality is Scott Allan, back in the day, when Rangers were 100% in for him, had the potential to become a new Barry Ferguson.
He really was that good. The boy had pace, trickery, vision, and was the perfect 6 or 8 that Rangers had missed since our man moved on all those years ago.
The Italians call that position the ‘regista’ or ‘orchestrator’. Pulls the strings, slows the game down, speeds it up, makes things happen. Reads the game ahead of everyone.
Allan, of course, did not get his move that season – he faced either being frozen-out at Hibs or taking Celtic’s offer, which was later confirmed by-then manager Ronny Deila as nothing more than a wind up to stop Rangers getting the player. Celtic had no intention of using him but could waste money just to p*ss the Famous off.
It didn’t have the impact of Mojo, nowhere near, but it was of the same ilk.
Nowadays? Allan has had his health issues, and never hit that potential, and now becomes a free agent this summer, aged 30.
For his own part Allan’s a good egg. He’s still a Ger despite the Celtic ‘mistake’ (what choice did he have) he made, and we love this quote from him:
“Hearts fans probably don’t like me because I played for Hibs. Hibs fans probably don’t like me because I left. Rangers fans probably don’t like me because I went to Celtic. I started at Dundee United but their fans probably don’t like me because now I’m at Dundee. Celtic fans know that when I was a wee boy my favourite team were Rangers and that’s a good enough reason for Aberdeen fans to hate me. What a shambles!”
Somehow the poor sod has managed to pee off the entire SPL!
But the talent never left him.
Now we’re not saying we need to sign Scott Allan and we’ll instantly have our Barry replacement. Hell the kid never even got a call up for Scotland.
We’re not pretending he’s top class.
But as fans will know, when there’s potential, there’s a reason – and had Allan made that move back in the day, he’d have developed under Mark Warburton to allow his creativity to flourish around better players, and in the SPL he might just have stepped up to raise Rangers’ level.
We know, it’s ifs and buts, but the Allan story will always bug at us a bit, a what might have been player.
Sign him this summer? Sentimental, yes, and maybe he’d surprise us by realising a bit of the dormant Ranger inside him that wanted to bloom all those years ago.
There’s no risk here. He’d be pennies in wages, and there’s no transfer fee.
And maybe a bit of the old Allan may just surface at long last.
Can I be the first to say yes please. The lads a proper player , he was used and it really fucked him up. He always looked class and always gave us problems when he faced the Famous. So it’s a yes from me , he would love to shove it right up most of those who disrespected and shafted him . He can really play still.
It was about 95% against this one! It got the predictably angry and abusive response on our social media channels.
Scott Allan is many things, and you’ve probably heard them all since you mooted this, but the one thing he definitely is is a very good footballer regardless of who he has played for. He’s probably missed the boat for us but had he joined us when we first wanted him I’m sure that he would’ve been a great player for us and a Scottish international. How many games have we been dying for a lock picker to break down packed defences with a killer pass. Shame. A wasted career. Hope Celtic are proud of themselves.
He had his day 100% no
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