Billy Davies revealed he was promised an interview for the Rangers manager’s job – but is still waiting on the call nearly a decade later.
The 60-year-old former Motherwell, Preston, Derby County and Nottingham Forest boss has regularly been touted for the Ibrox gig where he spent five years as a player in the early 1980s. With current Light Blues boss Philippe Clement under severe pressure, Davies says he’s never been more ready for a return to management after 10 years out of the dug-out.
Davies was heavily linked with the Rangers job after both Mark Warburton and Pedro Caixinha were sacked and asked by Simon Ferry on the Open Goal podcast if he had ever spoken to Rangers about the job, the 60-year-old said: “Yes.
“My agent got a call in 2016 or 2017. My agent got a call from a Rangers board member and that Rangers board member told him that the Rangers board wanted to speak to me about the job. He told my agent that Stewart Robertson (former managing director) would call us the following morning because we were going for an interview to become the Rangers manager. But we haven’t heard anything since.
“And the interesting thing is that I’ve been linked with that job since 2004 every year or two, my name comes up, and I’ve never spoken to the club and they’ve never even given me an interview. My agent got that call from the board member and he told him Stewart Robertson would call me or him the following day and the call never came in.”
On getting back into football, he said: “I’m ready to go. I’m desperate to get the boots back in. I’ve never felt more ready, passionate and enthusiastic about taking on this next chapter – I can’t wait to get tore into the players and the team and get back to my day job. It’s a game I love and they’ll never turn me against this game.”
Davies also revealed how he regrets turning down English Premier League giants Manchester United when he was a kid to sign for Rangers.
Dave Sexton was then Red Devils boss when the midfielder was offered a deal. He said: “I got taken down to Manchester to the training ground and was down there from 12 until about 16 years old. I was mingling with the first team, it was great. The manager, Dave Sexton, he had a team full of Scottish guys in Arthur Albiston, Gordon McQueen and Joe Jordan. It was such a wonderful place to be.
“They offered me a five-year contract… but I went abroad with the youth team and took a bit of homesick and told Dave Sexton that very sadly I’d decided to stay home and sign a five-year deal with Rangers.
“It was a terrible decision for me. I was young, I was naive, I took homesick and I made a decision. But the club were fantastic. Dave Sexton was fantastic with his coaching. Every day going down to the training ground at the Cliff with all the first team boys like Lou Macari and Sammy McIlroy, Frank Stapleton, they were all there every day and we would sit beside them at lunch time. I’ve got to say it was a great experience. It’s a wonderful club. A great place to be. [Leaving] was the biggest mistake of my life.”