Just to quickly update on the Harry Souttar piece from earlier, and our reference to the ‘battle’ between TFO and 4lads (it wasn’t really, just two sources saying something different).
Well Mr Souttar has actually spoken about the whole thing for the first time, and while the headlines appear to give TFO a bit more credibility on this story, we’re not totally sure.
See what you make of what Harry said:
Asked about his future and, apparently, the links with Rangers, he said:
“It’s been tough. I think there were a lot of things mentioned in the press about going on loan.”
Now Rangers weren’t the only side linked with Souttar, quite a few clubs were interested in taking him, but a Scottish outlet claims Rangers actually pulled out of the move for him because it was dependent on making the Champions League and being able to afford his wage.
We’re dubious about this because Rangers signed a whole bunch of expensive players whose wages are sky high (Danilo anyone) and shipped out plenty too, so unless Souttar was expecting wages above £60k we’re a little sceptical that it was depending on UCL.
But we do know Rangers were banking on freeing up £30,000 via Ben Davies, and we think that wage was probably the issue. That really if we’d got rid of him and opened up that wage, Harry Souttar would have been ours.
That Souttar himself has actually sort of maybe contradicted 4lads a little and possibly backed up TFO is enlightening, but nothing is particularly definitive.
Either way, we didn’t get him, and he sounds absolutely fed up. Maybe we’ll look again in the winter?