Scott Allan - The Patter Signing

The rumours are gathering pace that Scott Allan could be on his way back to Hibs in the summer when he returns to Scotland from a miserable time down south with Rotherham.

Now granted, Rotherham is a dive and it’s going to be even worse when Brexit hits, and they were never going to be anything other than relegation fodder, making it extremely hard for Allan to stand out there, so whoever advised him on going there and hampering his career further needs their heads examined.

When he does return back to Celtic in the summer, he’ll fall even further down the pecking order than he ever was when Ronny Deila was in charge, and we’ll more than likely be starting the new season on the back of a treble, which he had zero contribution in, even before he left for that backwards place in Yorkshire, which begs the question – what next for Scott Allan ?

The smart move would surely be a return to Easter Road to Hibs, who you’d imagine will be back in the Premiership for 17/18. He was a standout for them in 14/15 and his performances in the play off matches against Rangers especially did not go unnoticed , as he provided a lacklustre Hibs midfield with the only creative and energetic outlet in a dismal campaign.

Which then brings us onto the summer of 2015, when Rangers did their spiceboy at Sugarcube impression and repeatedly couldn’t stop firing into a lassie who wasn't up for it, in this case, Scott Allan, who was still a Hibs player at the time, and despite Alan Stubbs clearly rejecting several bids and saying he was not for sale, their fans did that thing they stupidly did in 2007 with Scott Brown and assumed was still going, somehow, to Ibrox! The fact that Scott Allan’s pal, Sixteen Ninety Halliday , had his arm around him after the 6-2 match was all the evidence the Deluded Loyal needed, and that on the Monday morning after the weekend’s game , he would be a Bear.

Step forward Peter Lawwell, who, for some reason, decided to splash out on the midfielder out of nowhere, despite the fact that we already had fifteen first team players in that area of the squad. Scottish fitba Twitter went into overdrive. Celtic fans boasted and bragged about it, Rangers fans took the huff and gave it the ‘Didnae want him anyway!’ patter despite the fact that he would have improved their team significantly. What started off as banter quickly became banal, and it seemed to dominate people’s timelines on a regular basis.

At the risk of being 'ITK', it became clear that Scott Allan was probably a Peter Lawwell signing, and not a Ronny Deila one.

The fact that he was unveiled before a match was bizarre as well. This wasn’t a high profile signing at all, yet we were parading him before a game against Inverness. Some change from Jorge Cadete back in 1996, in what was a major coup. This reeked of nothing but a patter signing. The fact that we did what Rangers did to us with players back in the dark days and a chance to go ‘Look we can do it as well!’ instead of buying in a genuine class midfielder that - and I know this sounds crazy - might have been the difference in the Europa League that season or was the crucial difference in the horror shows at Hampden in 2016 ? Of course, I’m a key believer in patter in Scottish Fitba and I respect some aspects of the signing, but would have much preferred it we patronised Rangers further and offered to loan him to them or something, instead of throwing him on against Ajax at Celtic Park and completely obliterating our chances of progressing to the knockout stages of the competition.

So when he comes back, what will happen ? Will we see Rodgers perform a rejuvenation of a footballer written off at Celtic , much like Stuart Armstrong ? Or will he be told he can leave to dive into another Lazarus Pit in Scottish Fitba ?

I would bet strongly on him leaving Celtic and getting his career back on track elsewhere. I don’t think he’s a bad player by any means, and his form at Hibs showed that he’s clearly talented, but his progress and development was stifled with us last season, and he’s several levels behind even Callum McGregor and Liam Henderson, so it would make no sense in keeping him around when we can kick on and either develop those we already have further, or invest in another midfielder to take us to another level in Europe.

Whatever happens, it isn’t often you get your photo taken with someone in the VIP area at Hampden, and Scott will always appreciate the time taken by GIGPOD’s James, who posted for a photo with him at the Betfred Cup Semi Final in October 2016.

What a time to be alive.