Mark Hendry is an experienced football journalist and editor with over a decade of experience covering the game across the UK. Specialising in exclusive transfer news, breaking stories and in-depth football analysis, he has developed an extensive network of contacts at clubs and agencies across Europe, helping him deliver reliable reporting and fresh insight into the biggest stories in football.

Mark previously wrote for The Herald and Scottish Sun, before progressing to Deputy Editor at Reach and Head of Scotland at GRV Media. His expertise spans Scottish football, the Premier League and European football, with particular expertise in covering Celtic, Rangers and Liverpool FC.

Throughout his career, he has interviewed prominent football figures including Aleksandr Hleb, Ryan Christie, Ramon Vega and Josh Doig. A graduate of the University of the West of Scotland with an honours degree in Sports Journalism, Mark combines industry connections with a passion for insightful, authoritative football journalism.

Rangers manager Derek McInnes is keen to bring Connor Barron back to Ibrox in the January transfer window, Football FanCast sources understand.

The 24-year-old midfielder has been on loan at Middlesbrough after joining the English Championship leaders on deadline day.

The move is understood to have been pushed by the board, but McInnes would have been satisfied had he stayed in and around the first-team.

The Gers have a strong selection of stars in the centre of midfield with the likes of Nicolas Raskin, vice captain Dan Neil, Vanja Dragojevic and Cammy Devlin ahead of Barron in the pecking order.

Tochi Chukwuani is also champing at the bit for a spot in the starting lineup and did himself no harm with a goal against St Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership last weekend.

Barron, meanwhile, has struggled to set the heather alight on loan with Boro and is yet to feature for the club at all since arriving back in September.

It is understood the player's move was sanctioned by the hierarchy at the Glasgow giants in an attempt to claw back some finances having watched the club fail to qualify for any European football this season.

"Barron, you know what you're going to get from him. It's the energy, the drive, the tenacity he gives you. The wee fella can play as well. We seem to kind of miss that, we overlook that. He's come in and done a great job as well." - Derek Ferguson, December 2025

Rangers fell out of the Europa League at the hands of Polish outfit Jagiellonia Bialystok with a 3-2 aggregate score before they were further embarrassed by Jablonec of Czechia, who eliminated them from the Conference League qualifiers. Barron was an unused substitute in the home leg against the former and came off the bench twice against the latter but failed to impact either fixture.

McInnes wants Barron to return to Rangers in January

McInnes, we understand, has made it clear to the Gers higher-ups that he wants Barron available to him in the new year to compete for a place and provide extra cover for the engine room.

It comes as Rangers chairman Andrew Cavenagh has already confirmed that the club will not dip into the winter market unless injuries mount or the boss convinces the money-men otherwise, having splashed out over £34m in the summer.

That means no new midfield signings will move to Govan in January, which could offer Barron a route back into the fold.

He will certainly need to improve his match fitness should he move back north of the border, with his parent club's squad finding their footing in McInnes' set-up despite early struggles.

The manager has his charges playing on the front foot with an intense style and Barron's lack of playing time at the Riverside has hampered his development.

Barron was already behind his new teammates where fitness is concerned when he moved to the Riverside, having only turned out for the Light Blues twice early in the campaign. But while he has not been involved in any sort of competitive action for Boro since he made the switch, he has been given an opportunity to impress head coach Kim Hellberg during the most recent lengthy international break.

The player has one cap for Scotland but was left home during the Nations League ties by new boss Sebastien Pocognoli. That gave him the chance to play in a bounce game for Boro against Newcastle United. Interestingly, Barron scored the only goal of the game as the Championship side won 1-0.