John McGinn has been dropped for Hibs friendly match against Berwick tonight.
The manager says he is “resting him.”
A number of other players are being rested so perhaps that’s not as far-fetched as it sounds, but it raises an interesting point, one I made the other day.
If McGinn is not being “rested” but rather wrapped in cotton wool in anticipation of a transfer fee that Hibs otherwise wouldn’t get, what would have been the logic in Kieran playing the match yesterday if he was, as some seem to think, on the way out of the club?
Is it normal – is it even wise? – to put an asset whom you expect to be getting £25 million for into such a match, needlessly? If Hibs won’t risk a player valued at one sixth of that, why would we believe that Celtic would take such a risk with Kieran?
Reports today suggest that Celtic wants a deal done by close of business tomorrow, so that McGinn can take part in our first European games and so it might well be that Hibs believe it would be foolish to put him into the team for a meaningless game.
Of course, there might be nothing in this. It might just be that Neil Lennon thinks the player, and some of his team-mates, need a little early R&R. Yet it’s hard to escape the feeling that this one has legs, that this one’s almost done.
McGinn might be at Celtic Park sooner than we’d thought.