Not many players have crossed the Old Firm divide, but one former Rangers star has revealed he took drastic action once he learned of interest from his boyhood heroes.
Former Gers youngster Gregg Wylde was on the books of Celtic as a teenager, with the Rangers diehard in a Parkhead youth team alongside future stars including James Forrest, when he learned of interest from Ibrox. And the title winner, who played 48 times for Rangers between 2009 and 2012, said he resorted to drastic measures to force through a move to Murray Park – despite loving his time with the Hoops.
Speaking on Lomond Radio Wylde, who is now 33 and plays for Lowland League side Broomhill, said: “I went and signed for Celtic when I was younger and Tommy Burns was there. I was there for a couple of years and I really enjoyed it. There were a lot of trips abroad and it was excellent, James Forrest played in the same team as me and came through the youth system at the same time. He’s done well for himself.
“Tommy Burns was excellent, but I was young at the time and only spoke to him briefly. My dad dealt with all the contracts, but his training was really, really good. I moved to Rangers when I was 14, it was a swap deal at the time. I ended up going to Rangers, my boyhood club who I’d grown up supporting. Moving to Rangers was one of the best things that ever happened to me. When the interest came at first my head just turned and I wanted to go and play for Rangers. One day I actually turned up to Celtic training with a Rangers necklace, that didn’t go down too well.”
And he was immediately made to feel at home in Glasgow’s Southside, working his way through the Ibrox ranks – even playing in an Old Firm League Cup final victory over Celtic in 2011, where he was too skint to go out celebrating with the rest of the squad, before being bailed out by a teammate. The winger continued: “After we beat Celtic in the cup final I was a young boy and didn’t have much money, but we were all going out after it. Steven David asked me, and I told him I didn’t have much – and he gave me a couple of quid to help out. He didn’t need to do that, and it wasn’t just me. I think he was helping out the other young boys like John Fleck, Danny Wilson and Jamie Ness as well.”
Despite being a diehard Rangers fan, Wylde also revealed that he once had to pay for tickets to sit in the away end at Ibrox for a match – when being on the fringes of the Light Blues squad at the time. He continued: “I was in the East Stirlingshire end (for a 6-0 Scottish Cup defeat in 2008) with my mum when my dad was their manager. I can always remember that I used to hover around Jimmy Bell’s office, he always said that I might be in the squad to play against my dad’s team – but it didn’t get to that point. I had to pay to get in too!”