Former Arsenal and England maverick, Paul Merson, has revealed how close he came to signing for the famous Glasgow Rangers in an interview with Robert Snodgrass and Kris Boyd on The Lockdown Tactics podcast.
The interview, reported by the Glasgow Times, goes on to explain why he didn’t make the move and also reflects on the current state of play in Scottish football.
Merson claims that Walter Smith was in charge and had wanted to sign him on a few occasions but didn’t have the bottle to put in a transfer request:
“The opportunity to join Rangers came up a lot.
“They were always in for me. Walter Smith was the manager. I was playing for Arsenal at that time and I would have probably gone.
“But it’s just back then, when you are younger, your agent will say to put in a transfer and you can go. But I didn’t have the balls to do that.
“If I’d put in a transfer request I’d have been terrified of George Graham and I would have sat in the reserves for four months.”
The Sky Sports Soccer Saturday pundit would’ve been a decent addition to the Rangers midfield at the time with Smith – particularly in Europe – opting to go with one striker and an attacking midfielder instead of two forwards.
How he would’ve coped with domestic football in Scotland is another story with Merson far from known for his work rate or physicality. During the period in question Rangers had both Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup – two of Rangers greatest ever players – at their disposal, so the chances are that he would’ve been expected to play a similar role in Smith’s attack – a lot for any player to live up.
Merson joins a long list of top-class players that were linked with Rangers in Smith’s 9-in-a-row tenure and although some are tinged with regret – Ronaldo for example – not many fans of the Light Blues would’ve given up Gazza’s spell at the club in exchange for anything that the “Magic Man” could offer.