Rangers signing Ryan Porteous from Hibs on a free transfer should be a no-brainer
If it’s purely a football decision, it’s not a bad idea at all. But for him to make it in Glasgow and realise his full potential at Ibrox he’ll need to cut out some of the stupid antics he’s shown at Easter Road. Listen, the boy can play. But he’s also got a reputation for being a bit of d**k on the pitch. I suppose what that shows is that he’s got character and a personality. And when you play for big clubs, you need to have a bit about you.
You also need to have quality and I think Ryan has that. The only thing I don’t like about him is the other stuff and he can’t continue with that if he goes to Rangers. At Hibs it’s fine, he’s the big fish there. But that won’t be the case in Glasgow, especially when he sets foot inside Ibrox.
He would need to screw the nut if he moved there. He’s not a 19-year-old kid anymore. There would need to be a bit more maturity to his game.
And to be fair, he showed it on his Scotland debut. He was excellent that night in Ukraine when he displayed real discipline.
In that environment, he knew he wasn’t the big-hitter in the Scotland team. Under Steve Clarke with the national team, he wasn’t going to get away with any daft behaviour.
On the international stage, he knew he had to perform and he did. Whereas at Hibs, he knows he’s playing every week, no matter what.
I like him as a player. I actually played against him when he was a young boy coming through at Easter Road.
And I remember after a game, he sought me out and started asking me for advice. He was asking me how he should deal with specific types of runs and movements from strikers.
That was a completely different boy to the one you see at times for Hibs now. He had just come into the team and was hungry to learn.
He wanted to get better and develop himself. I think he actually showed some balls to come and get me and ask questions. But he also showed maturity by wanting to improve himself.
I don’t mind a centre-back trying to noise up strikers, like Ryan does. What I don’t like is his selfish streak.
I watched a game he played in against Rangers at Easter Road and he’d been having his usual ding-dong with Alfredo Morelos. He was driving forward with the ball and Alfredo gave him a wee nudge once Ryan had passed the ball.
He did a Klinsmann-style dive across the turf. Was it a foul? Probably. But the ball had gone to his team-mate. Ryan got up and chased the referee asking for a free-kick.
While this was going on, Hibs put a ball into the back post and should have scored. But he wasn’t even looking at the game.
Because Ryan had been pushed, he was trying to provoke the ref into booking Morelos. I just thought: ‘Mate, your team have just almost scored a goal, forget about it!’.
It was so immature. Some of the stuff he does on the pitch is really immature.
But he’s 23-years-old now and an international player. He’s on the verge of a move to England or the Old Firm so that kind of stuff has to go.
If he goes to Rangers, it can’t all be about Ryan Porteous making headlines. Even after that Scotland debut, he scored a couple of goals for Hibs and for a few weeks it was the Ryan Porteous show.
That can’t be the case at Rangers. It’ll be about helping your team win the league.
It doesn’t matter how many goals or caps he gets. It’ll be about winning the title.
He showed maturity that night for Scotland in Ukraine. That’s the level of performance and concentration he has to find every week.
Then it’s about how you carry yourself. And that’s the bit that has to change.
Ability-wise, he’s definitely good enough to sign for Rangers. He’s quick, strong and aggressive. He’s not the biggest for a centre-back so he needs to be aggressive and he is.
He can pass and he can play out from the back, which is a requirement for any modern-day centre-half. He’s got all the tools, it’s just whether his mentality can deal with it.
Levels have to go up when you make that move to Rangers or Celtic. It doesn’t matter how you’ve performed for Hibs, Hearts, Dundee United, whoever. Levels must go up at the Old Firm because there is a higher standard of footballer there – and you need to match up.
It’s not just about performing on a Saturday either. It’s about doing it every day, Monday to Friday, just to get into the team on a Saturday.
That’s where the big difference is. The pressure, demands and expectations all rise when you go to Glasgow. That’s when it’s about how each individual player deals with it.
Having Ryan’s type of character and personality makes me think he CAN deal with it. But only if he’s smart.
Rangers probably need personalities like him at the moment. The more guys you’ve got who are willing to stand up and be counted when you go to Celtic Park for an Old Firm game, the better.
Porteous can do that, he’d thrive in those games. He’s shown that at Hibs. Against the Old Firm, he’s got involved in a few situations which has to be eradicated.
But in terms of standing up, defending and playing well, I think he’s done that. He’s shown the characteristics you need to play at the Old Firm. And he’ll need that off the pitch as well as on.
Everyone wants a piece of you in Glasgow. One minute, they want to tell you how good you are when things are going well.
Then when they’re not going well, everyone and their Auntie wants to have a pop at you. When you’re a character like Porteous, you’ll be one of the first to get it.
When you come from a smaller club to Glasgow, those are the things you have to deal with. It can be tough and plenty of players haven’t been able to cope with it.
Football-wise, he’s got the ability to be a really good player for Rangers if he goes there. But it’s the other stuff he’ll have to sort out if he wants to be a success.
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