Gordon Strachan has said that Jermaine Defoe’s move to Rangers is all about him joining a team where he can feel excited and be a big fish with an influence at Ibrox.
The Bournemouth hitman joined the Light Blues on an 18-month long loan deal in one of the biggest signings in Scotland for some years.
Speaking about his move to Ibrox and why he would have turned down moves to relegation threatened sides in the Premier League, Strachan insisted that the opportunity to play at a bouncing Ibrox and to help influence the club’s future would have been a big draw for him.
He told Sky Sports’ The Debate (10/01, 22:00): “He’s done all that kind of football, helped teams in relegation, been at the top of the Premier League.
“The chance to go to Rangers, which is completely different, which have 40, 50 thousand every game, and there’s madness in there. I think for a player it’d be nice to try a bit of that. Roy Keane did that at Celtic.
He went along there and was in a place where he felt he could be an influence again, for the younger players and I think Jermaine probably thinks the same. I’m going there, an exciting, wonderful club, influencing players and in the limelight again.”
Opinion
Strachan might well have hit the nail on the head here. Defoe has plenty of experience under his belt and while there would have been Premier League sides sniffing about at the possibility of a loan deal to try and bolster their own attacks, the striker himself would no doubt have been reluctant to become embroiled in yet another relegation battle after his time with Sunderland. At Ibrox he is challenging at the top of Scottish football and while some might say that is not too much of a challenge for a man of his qualities and history, the chance to end Celtic’s iron grip on the division is a huge challenge. He is a big fish in an ever growing pond of talent and has the opportunity to go down in history as a title winner at Rangers after years in their rivals’ shadow. That has to mean something to any footballer, not just a veteran who has played for both club and country.