Former Ibrox striker and now Hearts head coach Steven Naismith has staggeringly blamed Rangers over the Alex Lowry scandal.
Responding to the absolute shambles which left Rangers with an injured player and unable to put him back out on loan, the ex-Everton man pinned the blame of the whole situation on Rangers and appeared determined to worsen the currently deteriorating relations between the clubs.
He said:
“I think that’s more to do with internal communication between their departments than anything to do with us. With any loan player, there is nothing that can be done without the parent club having the say-so. The whole way through with Alex, Rangers were in control of it. So it must be a communication issue with them.”
A literally ridiculous and appalling reply.
Hearts were in full control of the loan termination, Rangers did NOT recall the boy at all. They sent him back after he got injured and failed to inform Rangers of the full extent of it.
For Naismith to try to blame Rangers’ ‘internal departments’ and ‘communication’ is absolutely, utterly, and disgracefully absurd.
‘With any loan player, there is nothing that can be done without the parent club having the say-so. The whole way through with Alex, Rangers were in control of it.”
This is misleading at best and a downright lie with economy of the truth at worst.
The parent club cannot recall the player unless there’s a clause in the loan deal allowing that, and that wasn’t the case here, and it’s completely false to say the parent club has full control. Not true at all. The parent club and the loanee club can remain in dialogue of course, but the loan club becomes responsible for everything about that player while he’s in their care.
Rangers have fully spoken to Brighton about Abdallah Sima’s situation, dialogue is clear between both clubs out of mutual respect despite the injury occurring on international duty. And Rangers, of course, fully announced the situation, remaining completely transparent.
Hearts? Hid it, kept it quiet, then terminated the loan and dumped the kid back to Rangers without a word.
Naismith is having to cover up for his own club’s fail here, his own club’s diabolical conduct, but sadly has done it very, very very poorly and pinned the blame on Rangers.
He didn’t impress, got injured, and they had enough. But instead of telling Rangers the situation, and apologising, just washed their hands of it and just ditched him without any communication.
We are well aware Naismith’s loyalties are to Hearts now, but the bridges between he and Rangers weren’t completely burned after 2012 – he had apologised for his role in what he did and the bad advice he took. But he was just a wee boy back then.
Now? A grown man. Very very poor from him and Hearts.