It could be a big summer ahead for Kris Boyd. The Scottish international’s contract at Kilmarnock is about to expire and the striker looks set to be on the move again.

The two clubs that seem most eager to sign Boyd are sides that will be competing in the Scottish Championship next season, Hearts and Rangers.

I would like to think that the prolific hitman would decide against dropping down a division, especially if its just in search of a better wage packet.

I don’t normally come out with that statement, as a footballing career is a short one and players deserve to make money spinning moves. But Boyd is in a slightly different position to most that ply their trade in the Scottish leagues. The thirty year old frontman has already made a very good living during his career after his first stint at Rangers, with his move to Middlesborough and his move to MLS side Portland Timbers. Two of those moves were free transfers and would have involved decent signing-on fees.

That years move to the States pocketed him at least $1.25m plus whatever compensation that was agreed when they terminated his deal.

So I don’t think Kris Boyd’s next move should be solely based on monetary terms.

This is the player that gave up a proportion of his signing-on fee to help the Kilmarnock youth set-up when he joined Rangers back in 2006. So he can’t be classed as a greedy man.

By re-signing for Kilmarnock it showed again that it wasn’t about the money. He wanted a platform that he was used to and that he could get back in-form. He also wanted to get back into the Scotland squad. He has regained his scoring touch at Rugby Park and he’s the third top scorer in the Scottish Premiership this campaign with nineteen strikes. That is a very good return especially when you consider that Killie have been in the bottom half of the table most of this term. His scoring success hasn’t gone unnoticed at Hampden, with national manager Gordon Strachan selecting him in the Scotland squad that faced Norway last November.

His successful return has also impressed his peers. He is the only non Celtic nominee, named in this seasons PFA ‘Player of the Year’ award. So why would and should he gamble on his potential international career by dropping down a division at the age of thirty?

I’m sure some Championship sides down south would take a punt on Boyd, but after his spell in the North East he may feel that he has had his fingers burnt there already. That said, maybe he has some unfinished business down there. His loan stint at Nottingham Forest proved that at the right club Boyd was capable of getting goals in that division too.

Kilmarnock’s gaffer Alan Johnston has already revealed that he is still hopeful that Kris can remain with the Ayrshire club. Now that too could make more sense than joining either Rangers or Hearts. As he would remain in Scotland’s top flight and stay in Strachan’s line of vision.

A perfect scenario for the Irvine born centre forward could be to have another years contract at Killie and then see if either Rangers or Hearts can win promotion and then join them then.

It just seems nonsensical to me that Kris Boyd would talk about getting back into the Scottish squad, get there and then leave for a lower league.

The striker doesn’t really get the credit he deserves for his goal scoring instincts in the top flight, so even if he gets forty goals in the Scottish Championship he’ll still get slated.

Fans might say that if he returns to Ibrox then he is doing it for emotional reasons. But if that’s true then why didn’t he rejoin them the last two times he was free to do so?

I don’t even think signing Boyd will be hugely beneficial for those two particular sides either. He will be on a wage of around £7k to £10k a week plus another signing-on fee. These are teams that are still in a bit of a financial mess, they don’t need to be throwing too much money at footballers. That is the kind of philosophy that got them into these money troubles in the first place!

So all in all I hope Kris Boyd resists the urge to drop down the league in search of even more money. Keep proving you can still preform at the highest level and are hungry to improve your game and get selected consistently for Scotland. Then see where that gets you.

Posted on April 23rd, 2014 by scott
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