Why Rangers Should Forgive Any Perceived Mutinous Past Action And Sign Steven Naismith
Scotland attacker Steven Naismith has hinted publicly now that he is considering his future at English Championship side Norwich City and may well look for a move away from Carrow Road in January. The Scottish forward, now 31 years old, has been back in training for three weeks, having previously suffered an ankle ligament injury. However, he is finding it harder to regain his place in the Norfolk side.
Naismith has bags of experience; capped 45 times by Scotland and having played for Kilmarnock, Rangers and Everton before making the move to Norwich City. At this stage of Naismith’s career, he is well aware that every game is precious and so sitting on the sidelines for an extended period of time is not really an option for him.
Naismith’s comments in recent days, although not at all condescending of the boss, have seemed to suggest that Daniel Farke has a different way of playing than Naismith is used to and perhaps wants to play other players, regardless of the former Rangers man’s talent.
The Govan club paid a fee which was fairly hefty for its time, £2.5million in fact, to sign Naismith ten years ago from Kilmarnock. After a very successful time at Ibrox however, he walked away from the club after a demotion for the Light Blues and headed off to the Premier League with Everton.
The player himself seems to regret that somewhat, knowing full well the way he left Rangers “wasn’t great”, but maintains his support for the club and watches them whenever he is not on the field himself. In still supporting Rangers, Naismith, for his part, would love to come back and help the out team on the pitch. He may even be hoping as far as the supporter groups go, that time is a great healer.
To his great credit, Naismith has said that coming back to Scotland would mean playing only for certain clubs; I’m taking those to be Kilmarnock and Rangers, and that finance does not come into it. Naismith has done very well in the game since leaving to play in England and it’s nice to hear that he simply wants to play football and do so for the teams he roots for.
That is what the game should be all about in terms of the playing staff and so for me, I would happily forgive any perceived mutinous past action and welcome someone who is very talented back to the playing squad in Glasgow.