Emerson Hyndman to move back to Rangers on loan - does it make sense?

Emerson Hyndman is apparently set to return to Rangers on loan, according to the Scottish Sun.

The Sun are usually pretty reliable when it comes to Scottish football, and Hyndman was a popular player during his first spell at Ibrox last season. But overall, we’re not so sure this move makes much sense.

First of all, the squad have a huge number of central midfielders. Ross McCrorie has made himself virtually undroppable for big games, Ryan Jack has been good when available, Graham Dorrans will return from injury next month, Jason Holt has deputised well, Josh Windass has performed well in a central role, and the club are looking likely to sign Hamilton’s Greg Docherty too. Sean Goss has also joined up and looked very impressive in the Florida Cup friendlies.

So it’s not clear at all where Hyndman would fit in, even if we played a diamond formation - which is unlikely since it would mean sacrificing one or both of our newest big signing Jamie Murphy and our most creative player in Daniel Candeias.

Secondly, with the benefit of hindsight, was Hyndman really that good in his first spell? He scored a lot of goals, but his range of passing often left a lot to be desired, and he didn’t contribute as much to overall play as we’d have liked. Essentially, he was Gedion Zelalem with goals. IE, he was Jason Holt. And we already have one Jason Holt and aren’t in desperate need of another.

Had this come from any other source we’d probably dismiss it, but the Sun have been pretty on the ball with our transfer activities so far, so we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this one. If he does come back, we wish him the best - but if he does, we’d be a bit concerned that we’re just signing whoever’s available without a clear plan this window when we probably need a more settled side to attack the second half of the season, even with the benefit of the extra options.

As we say, we’ll keep an eye on it...