TOMMY Wright has been a welcome beneficiary of Michael O’Halloran’s failure to establish himself at Rangers.
The winger’s return to St. Johnstone on loan this season has coincided with a sparkling spell of form which resulted in Wright being named Ladbrokes Premiership Manager of the Month for August yesterday.
Yet, the decisions firstly not to give O’Halloran a regular game and then to publicly dismiss him as being not good enough to play for the Ibrox club, as his opposite number Pedro Caixinha did controversially last month, have baffled the Northern Irishman.
The man who was many Rangers supporters’ favoured candidate to take over at Ibrox when Mark Warburton departed earlier this year, believes the pacey and direct forward could have been, and could still be, a potent weapon for them if handled properly.
Wright certainly feels Caixinha may have been better off persevering with O’Halloran than bringing in new signings in his position during the summer.
“You would have to ask Pedro Caixinha why he said what he did about Michael,” said Wright. “It’s beyond me. Michael is an asset for Rangers and he basically ruled out him going back. I find that difficult.
“I don’t really want to get into a ‘he said, they said’, but football is football and the pitch is the same, the rules are the same.
“Sometimes people have their mind made up on certain players. Pedro wanted to bring in eight, nine, 10, 11 players, I lost count.
“Michael was surplus to that, but it’s easy when you’re at a big club not to have a look at what you’ve got and say ‘he’s not exactly what I want, but I’ll work and get the best out of him’. It’s easy to dismiss him and bring in other players when you’ve got the money.
“Everyone is entitled to their opinion and Pedro had a clear vision of what he wanted when he came in and quite a lot of Rangers players weren’t part of that vision. Whatever has happened, I’m delighted I’ve got Michael and it was a no-brainer to bring him back.”
Wright revealed he had hoped to sign O’Halloran, who he sold for £500,000 in February last year, in a permanent deal this summer and had still not ruled out the possibility after his loan expires in January.
However, the former Newcastle United and Manchester City goalkeeper admitted St. Johnstone could be priced out of a move for the Rangers man, yesterday named Ladbrokes Premiership Player of the Month for August, if he continues to perform so well.
“I would hope to be able to extend the loan, but a lot of things can happen between now and then,” he said. “Our plan would be to extend it or maybe if I can get the chairman to release a few quid we might even buy him.
“We did ask about buying him, but that didn’t happen. The loan was the next best option, but let’s hope we can hold on to him for some time.
“The worry is that his value increases, but I’ve gone into it as a manager knowing that worst-case scenario I will have him until January.
“I’ve been planning for that. We’ve lost our leading scorers every season and that will happen because we’re a smaller club.
“If Michael burns it up from now until January and someone pays half a million or whatever and we can’t keep him then I’ll be happy he did the job for me and moved on.”
Asked if he was surprised that Rangers had declined to sell O’Halloran given that he didn’t feature in Caixinha’s long-term plans, Wright said: “When my chairman spoke to Stewart Robertson [the Rangers managing director] about buying him permanently, Pedro hadn’t made his comments publicly about Michael, although he might have had
them privately.
“We spoke to Rangers at the end of the season and didn’t think we would get him. Michael was aware of our interest and his main priority was to get back playing. He wanted to play in an environment where he knew he had to settle quickly to get his career back on track.
“Rangers, for a while, didn’t want him coming to us and I can understand that because they paid us money for him. But I was just happy in the end we got him because Michael made it clear he wanted to come back to us.”
Wright, whose team is in third place in the Ladbrokes Premiership after four games and only trailing Celtic, who they drew 1-1 with at Parkhead in their last match, on goal difference, has been delighted with how O’Halloran has performed.
“He’s had a bad time,” he said. “So it was easy for him to come back to an environment he can flourish in. It’s great to see him with a spring in
his step.”
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