As Rangers break Hearts with a move to sign John Souttar on a pre-contract deal, the reaction to Dundee United’s move for Tony Watt highlights the irrational Gorgie seethe.
Rangers fans are well used to other clubs in Scotland throwing the toys out of their pram when one of their players choose Ibrox but in Scotland international Souttar the reaction has already overstepped the mark.
Between the centre-back’s coffee shop being targeted by online trolls to Craig Levein discussing the defender’s family business in the media, the situation has lost a sense of perspective.
Souttar is joining the Scottish champions, who are under the management of an exciting young Dutch coaching staff and are in with a genuine shout of Champions League qualification and trophies.
Not to mention the fact he has family ties to Ibrox.
This is a superb move for the defender for purely footballing reasons and John Souttar should be applauded for choosing potential glory at Ibrox over mediocrity down south.
And yet, the abuse and rancour aimed at Souttar – somewhat enabled by a salty Hearts who’ve genuinely appeared to forget their standing in the Scottish football ecosystem – has been OTT.
Hearts fans seethe as Scotland international John Souttar chooses Rangers
Hearts fans were always going to be sour but there’s something a little more bitter than is truly justifiable coming from many Jambos.
Hearts could lose a key player for nothing – or a reduced fee unlikely to break £200k come the end of the window – but they knew that was a risk as Souttar’s current deal entered its final year.
The notion Souttar was going to choose Hearts over Rangers, or even Championship options like Blackburn or Sheffield United, was a fanciful one and Hearts have done themselves a disservice in their reaction.
Granted, Hearts handed the player a route back into the game and back into the Scotland set-up after a series of horrific injuries but John Souttar has repaid them with over five years and resurgent form at Tynecastle.
Tony Watt Dundee United move met with fraction of John Souttar outrage
Contrast the reaction – in the media and amongst rival fans – with that of Tony Watt leaving Motherwell for Dundee United.
Here’s a journeyman footballer and the Fir Park club’s top goalscorer making what is essentially a middling move to Tannadice amid controversial rumours of increased wages.
This isn’t someone joining a club with links to his family, or with genuine European ambitions, but rather something of a sideways move with different motivations, financial or otherwise.
And yet there is nothing quite like the vehemence we’ve seen aimed at John Souttar being aimed at Tony Watt.
Motherwell were even gracious enough as Dundee United negotiated a deal to see Tony Watt move this month.
If money was the main motivation for Souttar then he’d take the easy route of the English Championship and would’ve saved himself all the hassle.
Perhaps the main issue for Hearts fans is that they feel Souttar has abandoned them or let them down after their club stood by the talented defender during his injury problems.
Perhaps there is even this lingering – and deluded – sentiment from the rest of Scottish football that Rangers are the basket case of the years following 2012 and they can genuinely consider them rivals of sorts, even in the pursuit of the nation’s top players.
But when you strip the entire thing back there may be many people out there who are just angry that of all the clubs John Souttar moved to – and he was always going to move – he chose Rangers.
Speaking of Rangers centre-backs, manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst ruled out a return for a firm favourite amongst the Ibrox support.
