Clint Hill has enjoyed a decent year at Ibrox, so should Glasgow Rangers consider handing him a new deal?
Rangers’ Clint Hill
In January, former Rangers boss Mark Warburton suggested that he wanted to see Clint Hill sign a new deal at Ibrox following his first few months in the Scottish Premiership (via Evening Times). But while Warburton may now be gone, surely it makes sense for Pedro Caixinha to adopt a similar stance regarding the defender’s future.
The 38-year-old was something of a colossus for the Gers in their Old Firm draw with Celtic on Sunday, and was rewarded as he scored the equaliser in the dying minutes.
While Caixinha will need to see more than one performance before he makes up his mind on Hill, it would surely be the right decision to hand the centre-back a one-year deal.
If the Light Blues had a cluster of impressive and reliable defenders to choose from, then, of course, it would probably be a backward step to hand Hill fresh terms. But the simple fact is that the veteran has probably been the club’s best player at the back all season.
Rob Kiernan, Danny Wilson and Philippe Senderos simply have not shown enough for Caixinha to show Hill the door unless he makes big changes in the transfer market.
Rangers’ Clint Hill in action with Celtic’s Leigh Griffiths
And even then, Hill showed on Sunday that he can be a leader and is capable of galvanising the team, and those qualities may be crucial to have around if the Portuguese does decide to make wholesale changes to his squad at the end of the campaign.
Hill should not be the long-term option at Ibrox, but given how the former QPR man played in the Old Firm cauldron as well as what else Caixinha has available to him, the new Gers boss surely has little choice but to insist that Hill has a contract extension put in front of him.
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