Hutton “feels” for Patterson, SFA ban could “damage” Rangers youngster

The future of Nathan Patterson has sparked a lot of debate on social media over the last few days, particularly after James Tavernier extended his Rangers contract for another few seasons.

One former incumbent of the right-back role feels sorry for the 19-year old and not just because he has the skipper in front of him, Alan Hutton, speaking to Football Insider, believes that a possible SFA ban hanging over his head will really set him back given the games that he could potentially have played.

“I do feel for him, because he’s come in and stepped into that right-back spot.

“We know how difficult it can be stepping into James Tavernier’s shoes, it’s a difficult job but he’s handled it really well.

“He’s performed at a high level. We’re talking about him possibly getting into Scotland squads, that’s how well it’s done. It’s a shame because missing these last games of the season could really affect him moving forward because Tavernier is going to be back soon.

“It’s a shame for him because I read Steven Gerrard’s comments about the whole situation and I side with him. I just want to see him play out the rest of the season. I wish the SFA could take that into consideration.

“We know Rangers would have punished them internally. Maybe Steven Gerrard thinks that that has been enough for a boy so young. They did do wrong, they’re going to have to pay for it. That is ultimately the damaging bit.”

Hutton is right, although for me, it’s more to do with how unfair the ban is compared to ones received from other players in Scotland for similar offences, Jordan Jones and George Edmundson fully deserved their seven match bans but Patterson’s breach was not on that level.

Steven Clarke would have faced pressure to pick Patterson if he had been playing week-in, week-out, but we all know how loyal he is – he still picks three left-backs for goodness sake purely because he had Greg Taylor at Kilmarnock – and it would have taken injuries to his lesser quality preferred pair to pick the Rangers man, not that he shouldn’t be on the plane anyway regardless of how many games he plays.