A WEEK is, as former Prime Minister and Huddersfield Town diehard Harold Wilson is widely credited with remarking, a long time in politics.

In football, where a player can swear his undying love for a club one day and then, after being offered a pay rise, sign for their hated rivals the next, it can be an eternity.

It is, then, impossible to state with any certainty what Scott Allan’s situation will be when the summer transfer window closes at the end of this month. Who knows? Maybe the subject of this column next Monday will be: “Why Allan will make the difference for Celtic this season in their Treble bid.”

Yet, if Hibs continue to reject the advances of Rangers in the coming days, as they have repeatedly declared they will, and retain the services of their central midfielder what will the relationship between the club and the player be come September 1?

The capital outfit has been warned by many in Scottish football in recent days that they have blundered, and blundered badly, by turning down a second offer of £225,000 for their prized asset.

The 23-year-old, a lifelong supporter of the Ibrox club, is keen to join his boyhood heroes and this week handed in a transfer request in an attempt to facilitate the move. Having an individual who is unhappy, unsettled and uncommitted to their cause could, Hibs have been informed, be hugely detrimental to their prospects of enjoying a successful campaign.

Allan will, it has been widely predicted, not give his all for his employers either on the field or in training. His attitude will generate ill-feeling and create costly divisions among the squad. Hostility from the stands will adversely affect team performances.

The former Dundee United and West Brom man has certainly been subjected to some vile abuse – and even threats which Police Scotland have confirmed they are investigating – from Hibs fans on social media website Twitter in recent days.

Given that the Championship Player of the Year is free to sign a pre-contract agreement with another club in January and leave for nothing at the end of the 2015/16 campaign surely, it has been suggested, Hibs would have been far better off cashing in now.

If that scenario was to occur, would he give his all in the two league meetings with Rangers in the second half of the season? After all, if he was to do well it would have an adverse affect on the club he had pledged his future to.

The simple truth is, though, that the stance taken by the Easter Road club in this imbroglio has been absolutely correct.

Alan Stubbs, the Hibs manager, may have been stretching credulity when he declared his charge was not for sale. No club in this country, not even Celtic, can say that with any certainty about any of their players.

However, offloading Allan for such a paltry sum would have caused an outcry among their support and would ultimately have cost the Edinburgh club financially in lost season ticket sales and other areas.

Just what sort of message would it have sent out to their fans ahead of the start of the Ladbrokes Championship if Hibs had sold their most creative, dangerous and exciting player to their main rivals?

It would, in all likelihood, have been widely interpreted as an admission they had no chance of winning the second tier title. Far better to keep your followers, and customers, onside before a ball is even kicked than to alienate and anger them.

Talk of Allan downing tools, too, is premature and disrespectful. He is not the first individual to be denied a longed-for switch to Rangers by his club after a cash offer and he will not be the last. Both Scott McDonald and then Mark Reynolds, for instance, were told, much to their disappointment, they had to remain at Fir Park by Motherwell in the past. Their careers went from strength to strength thereafter.

Sure, Allan, the former Scotland Under-21 internationalist, will be smarting. But if he was resentful it did not show when he came on in the second half of the Petrofac Training Cup tie with Rangers nine days ago or in the League Cup match with Montrose on Saturday when he scored.

He should, despite somewhat spurious suggestions he had a verbal agreement with his employers that he would be allowed him to leave if a bigger club came in, get over the disappointment in time. If he has any sense, and he certainly exhibits a keen intelligence on the pitch, he will carry on applying himself and continue the progress he made last term when he resurrected a career which had been foundering.

My own suspicion is that Scott Allan will get his wish and become a Rangers player. Next season. But losing an individual who, it should not be forgotten, they acquired for free last summer for nothing after two seasons of service will be from catastrophic for Hibs.

Having him spearhead their challenge this term is worth far more than £225,000 to Hibs. It could be the difference between them joining the likes of Aberdeen, Celtic, Dundee United and Hearts in the top flight once again. They are quite right to stand their ground and hold onto him.