‘See you Monday.’ ex-Celtic star told Andy Halliday he was Rangers bound on the pitch.

‘See you Monday.’ ex-Celtic star told Andy Halliday he was Rangers bound on the pitch.

Andy Halliday has spoken about Rangers’ rivalry with Hibs as the Ibrox club battled to exit the Scottish Championship.

After failing to win the Scottish second division under a succession of managers the previous season, Mark Warburton was given the task of directing an attack on the Premiership.

As part of that, the Englishman welcomed Andy Halliday to the Ibrox club, but it is said that the Gers had their sights set on bringing in a top Easter Road talent to join him.

Now, Andy Halliday has spoken on Open Goal and has sensationally stated that a former Hibs star once told him on the pitch that he was joining Rangers before the deal fell through!

Scott Allan told Andy Halliday he was Rangers bound

Rangers’ pursuit of Hibs midfielder Scott Allan made headlines back in the summer of 2015.

However, with the Hibees also participating in the Scottish Championship, the Leith club refused to play with a natural promotion rival.

As events unfolded, Celtic notoriously swooped in to sign Scott Allan, thereby destroying any hope Rangers had of acquiring the boyhood bluenose at the conclusion of his contract the following summer. Andy Halliday, who is good friends with Allan, was discussing the subject with ex-Hibs star Lewis Stevenson.

And the current Motherwell midfielder has disclosed that Scott Allan told him on the pitch on the first day of the season that he was all set to join Rangers.

“Rangers were trying to get Scott Allan,” Halliday stated. “I believe they submitted two or three bids, didn’t they?

“We played Hibs in the Petrofac first round, the first game of the season, and I’ll never forget Scotty telling me, ‘I’ll see you on Monday. “As if he’s entering the dressing room. We went out that night.

“About four days later, he’s wearing the Celtic scarf above his head. Mental.

“I haven’t heard from him. I kind of left him to it, although we had the same agency, so I had heard a few things from him. “I think it just got to the point where Hibs were just saying, ‘listen we’re not selling Scott Allan to Rangers whilst we’re competing with them for the league’.”

When asked about his move to Celtic, Halliday said, “I remember my agent saying that Celtic have come and obviously he wants to go to Rangers but he says he’s going to go have a word with them.”

Should Hibs & Celtic let midfielder join Rangers?

The story of Scott Allan’s career is one of tragedy. After breaking through at Dundee United, the midfielder was first signed by West Brom, but he failed to live up to his early talent down south.

Allan spent time on loan at several lower-league English clubs before returning to Scotland with Hibs, where Rangers attempted to sign him in 2015.

But, with Celtic swooping in with the promise of Champions League football, Scott Allan was eventually loaned out on a number of occasions during a disappointing four-year spell at Parkhead.

No one wants to admit it, but Celtic’s desperation to prevent Allan from signing for Rangers hampered the midfielder’s career at a critical time and had a significant impact on subsequent seasons.

Returning to Hibs, where the midfielder suffered heart problems, Allan has dropped down the levels and now plays for Kelty Hearts in Scottish League One at the age of 32.

How different things would have been if Hibs and Celtic had allowed Allan to join Rangers, where he could have played an important part for many years.

It represents a badly managed career in which one of Scottish football’s most generational talents failed to realise his full potential.

Still, there’s that iconic pass in Hibs’ 6-1 defeat at Ibrox to reflect on.

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