Former Rangers defender Danny Wilson has claimed that he wanted to stay at Ibrox before his January exit to the MLS.
The 26-year-old enforcer joined the Colorado Rapids last month on a lucrative deal, with his Rangers contract coming to a close at the end of the season.
Wilson has now revealed that he requested to stay at the club, but director of football Mark Allen performed a u-turn on offering him an extension.
Speaking to the Scottish Sun, Wilson said: “I made it clear I wanted to stay with Rangers. Absolutely, I wanted to stay. But I was left with no choice but to consider other options. Plenty of people have had their say about my decision to leave Rangers, especially on social media. So much of it is inaccurate rubbish. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to set the record straight.
“I asked two managers and a director of football about a new contract. The truth of it is that for four or five months I asked Rangers what the situation was, beginning with Pedro Caixinha before he left. I was told just to concentrate on my performances — and I thought my performance level over that period of time was good. Then as it got into January, after we returned from Florida, I went in to speak to them again.
“I was told the contract would be there in the next day or so. That was it. I left the room thinking that would be me, I would be staying at Rangers. That was on the Tuesday, but by the Wednesday evening I was told there would be no contract for me to sign. It was Mark Allen, the director of football, who told me. He’d encouraged me to think there would be a contract for me to stay, but there weren’t even terms discussed. It was never about money. I actually told Rangers during our brief discussions that I would have been happy to stay on the money I was on.”
Wilson was playing his second spell at Ibrox after leaving his boyhood club to join Liverpool in 2010, a move which never really worked out for the enforcer, being loaned out three times before a permanent move to Hearts.
A return to Ibrox followed two years later, and Wilson has now 108 appearances for Rangers over the two spells, scoring five times.
The defender was in great form this season for the Light Blues, and many expected him to sign a new deal at the club, but a lucrative move to Colorado followed, where his season begins in March.
OPINION
When Wilson left Rangers last month to join the Rapids, the automatic assumption of many was that the move was based on money. MLS sides are able to offer many overseas players lucrative contracts, especially when compared to those in Scottish football. However, Wilson now claims that is not the case, and the club will have questions to answer. Yes, they have signed Russell Martin, but he is 32 years old, whereas Wilson is 26, and their careers have very different trajectories.