I didn't make up anything mate. You brought up Arfield to make a point and then brought up Hutton to try and refute a point which it didn't.
Arfield is the player he is today because of his time in England. That 8 years developed him as a player. In 2010, he wouldn't have been a starter for that Rangers team and there's no quantifiable way to know if he would have developed the same way if we had signed him but Rangers weren't interested and rightly so at the time. It isn't one they got wrong because he progressed elsewhere.
You were comparing McCann in relation to Jack's level when we signed him. Jack had played 250 games, all you've listed in relation to cup finals and European football. Yeah, Jack had done that too by the time he signed but on top of that his team which he was the captain of had been finishing much higher in the league every season than St Johnstone have. He was further ahead in his development.
A player moving to Preston doesn't mean they wouldn't have been decent for us but it's the right move for McCann's development just now. If Rangers thought he was worth the money being asked, he'd be with us. Most of the non-starters you've listed, we don't spend a £1.2 million + on them. Hagi being the exception but he's far more talented and used for specific purposes that are very valuable.
Nathan Patterson has played more than 7 games for Rangers btw.
The point about Hutton re 2010 was to show there was no mythical high water mark in that squad, it didn't take that much for quite average football players to play in it, Hutton, Wylde, Foster, Healey, Beattie, it wouldn't have taken much for AN other underdeveloped player to play given that underdeveloped players
were playing in that squad as well as players who were just generally very poor.
My original point about Arfield, was in reply to a post saying McCann had went to Preston as though that somehow diminishes his talent, it is just a bit of a daft view, we have often missed talent who have went to England and performed perfectly well even upon their arrival there rather than going through great strides of development, it was little to do with Rangers getting it right or wrong, talented football players often join poor teams, football isn't a sport where players live their entire career with high level sides, playing for a lesser side doesn't diminish a player talent.
I said Ryan Jack could feasibly have joined a side like Preston if he didn't join us, would doing so have meant he was somehow a poor football player, no, not it wouldn't. I said I don't think the two are massively removed as players at the stage they could have joined us (Jack and McCann)
I would class McCann as a better player now than Jack was when he left Aberdeen personally. I don't think number of games is a sole barometer of talent to make that differential between them either, Jude Bellingham has played a hell of lot less games than 250 and I would consider him better than Ryan Jack for instance at time he left Aberdeen, some players reach a talent level sooner than others.
To me that is just a wee bit McCoist logic , games played meaning better, McCoist is a manager who would likely have looked at games played as a priority, in part why we ended up with Black, Smith, Law and Daly rather than innovative thinking to even try the likes of McGinn, Robertson, Cummings and Shinnie, because surely those first mentioned were always going to be better/were better options because they had played more games? it's just cheats thinking to me, and a very decent example of how flawed that thought process can be.
Our squad has/had quite a few who cost more than 1.2 million who weren't starters in recent years, Grezda, Katic, Itten. Hagi isn't alone in costing over 1 million while being a project player/a player who wasn't always a starter BTW.
Patterson has played more than 7 games, but a lot less than 250 which evidently didn't have a great bearing in how the Everton scouting team viewed the player, they looked at what he has achieved, the talent he has and potential career trajectory, because games alone aren't always a great bearing.
I am neither here nor there re Rangers not signing him (McCann), but the point of, Rangers didn't sign him and he went to Preston so people who rate him are wrong about him, was just a bit silly
