ALAN Stubbs has revealed that Scott Allan would have signed for Rangers rather than Celtic had Hibernian not blocked the transfer. The midfielder moved to Parkhead in August 2015 after the Easter Road club prevented him from moving to Rangers as they were direct rivals for the Championship title that season.
Asked whether his former player, a childhood Rangers fan, had made the wrong choice in signing for Celtic, Stubbs said: “At the end of the day you have a choice and we all know Scotty’s choice would have been to go to Rangers. I think he is a fan and we all also know the reasons we couldn’t sell him to Rangers at the time. And then Scotty and his advisors chose Celtic.
“From a football point of view in terms of the team [Hibs] it was the best option. An emotional option would have obviously been Rangers. But he is not the only one who has gone [to Celtic] and it has not really worked out the way they would have liked.”
Allan failed to make an impact in his first season at Celtic Park - making just 17 appearances, most off the bench - and was allowed to go out on loan to Rotherham this season, re-uniting him with Stubbs before the manager’s sacking.
Now it looks as if he will be free to find another loan club for the second half of the campaign having failed to nail down a place at Rotherham. Stubbs thinks his former player needs to work harder and be more of a team player if he is to get his career back on track.
“The [English] Championship is very, very competitive,” he added. “And when you go in at the bottom of the table [as Rotherham were] you have to first of all be more of a team player. The teams at the top can have individuals who produce flashes with that bit of quality.
“When you are a team at the bottom sometimes those players can be difficult to implement into the team. I wanted to bring him down because I thought he could add some more quality. And, as with myself, it didn’t really work out for him.
“I still admire him as a footballer but he does need to establish himself at a team because he has had a couple of years where he has not really got himself into the Celtic team the way he would have liked.
“When you look at the way Celtic play, when you look at their wide players, they don’t just go forward they go backwards as well. That is what he has to add to his game.”
Stubbs was part of the last Celtic squad to win a domestic treble in 2001 and, as Brendan Rodgers’ side begin their Scottish Cup journey against Albion Rovers this afternoon, the former Everton player thinks the current crop will go on to complete a clean sweep this season, too, possibly without losing a game.
“It’s a huge ask but when you look at how dominant they are right now it’s possible, I don’t think there’s any doubt,” he added. “They have already won one trophy [the League Cup], two realistically, and they’ve only got the Scottish Cup to go. So they’re not a million miles away from it.
“Arsenal did it [a season unbeaten] but it’s so hard. Injuries, suspensions, illness will all kick in at some point. But Celtic have not just got the best players, but the biggest squad as well.”
- Alan Stubbs was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup
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