Despite only arriving at Rangers a year ago it has been speculated Michael O’Halloran could be allowed to leave Ibrox this month.
A potential loan deal – if the forward were to become available – would appeal to St Johnstone with Tommy Wright admitting his interest in taking him back to Perth.
However, the St Johnstone boss doesn’t think O’Halloran would be allowed to leave Rangers on loan but if he did Wright was quoted by the Herald as saying he would ‘urge the chairman’ to get him back.
‘I don’t think Michael’s available for loan. If he was, that would be a player I would urge the chairman to go and try and sign for us, but Michael is under contract at Rangers. If there is going to be speculation about his future at Rangers it’s easy to see we would be a club that would be suited for him but there’s been nothing formal.’
Wright might be interested in a potential loan deal but went on to say his priority was to continue the balancing act of keeping the books in order at St Johnstone with contract extension for the likes of Brian Easton and Danny Swanson his priority.
‘We’re looking but I can’t see anything happening. The strategy is to try and make sure we get everyone retained that we want to keep. We have lost the likes of Dave Mackay, Brad McKay and John Sutton who had to leave, and young players have left while they were all still under contract. There’s a cost to the club in that and that has to be factored in to everything we do.’
During his time with the club O’Halloran – signed for £500,000 – has started only 18 games for Rangers and his chances of becoming a regular aren’t likely to be helped by the loan arrivals of Jon Toral and Emerson Hyndman.
This has led to suggestion Mark Warburton could be prepared to let O’Halloran take a temporary leave of Ibrox? If this were to happen a return to St Johnstone on loan probably wouldn’t be a bad move.
