Hibernian head coach Jack Ross admits he believes that Flo Kamberi regards his Easter Road career as being over – and insists the striker’s comments about joining Rangers have made it harder for him to return to his parent club.
Kamberi said that Rangers fans were the best in the world and revealed it was his dream to play for the Ibrox outfit after sealing a loan move to Steven Gerrard’s side until the end of the season last Friday.
However, those remarks have not gone down well among officials and supporters at Hibs.
Kamberi is still contracted to Hibs until summer 2021 and Ross insists the 24-year-old’s choice of words make it clear that the Swiss forward sees a future away from the Leith outfit this summer.
The former Grasshoppers player is ineligible to face Hibs in tomorrrow’s clash in Glasgow and Ross admits he was not impressed by Kamberi’s comments.
He said: “I think they were poorly judged from his perspective, players will choose their own words and believe they’re right in what they’re saying.
“I think when you’re contracted to another club beyond the summer and go on loan to another club, you have to be respectful of both clubs.
“He’s contracted for another year beyond the summer, it’s difficult to predict what will happen beyond the end of this loan spell.
“I’d imagine going by his comments he would hope he doesn’t (have a future at Hibs).
“At the moment he does in terms of his contract.
“Undoubtedly he has made it more difficult to ingratiate himself back with the Hibs supporters should he come back into the club.
“Football is like, if you do come back and score ten goals in five games then everything is great again, that’s just the nature of this beast.
“There are a lot of things to happen between now and then before we need to worry about that being a problem.”
Asked if was surprised that Rangers allowed the comments to be published, Ross added: “I think the responsibility for the comments are his, I don’t think they are anyone else’s.
“They’re out and it’s his choice to use those words, and I think he knew fine what he was doing with them.
“Whether that’s helped him ingratiate himself with the club he’s at and alienate himself from his parent club, the consequences will be felt by him.”
Melee
Ross, meanwhile, is adamant there is no lingering bad blood with his Ibrox counterparts after both dugouts were involved in a touchline melee during Rangers’ 3-0 victory in Edinburgh in December.
Hibs defender Ryan Porteous’ red card for a dangerous tackle on Borna Barisic was the trigger for the disturbance.
The Scottish FA have hit both clubs, Hibs assistant coach John Potter and Rangers technical coach Tom Culshaw with notice of complaints, with the hearing to take place on Thursday.
Ross added: “When I played I always viewed it that when the game was done, it was done.
“The disciplinary side of things is Thursday, it’s maybe a little bit different that that’s been allowed to drag on for that long.
“I take pride in how we conduct ourselves and I think we let ourselves down a little bit and we spoke about it.
“It’s not as if it’s a consistent problem for us, it happens in the heat of games.”
