By the age of 14, very few athletes had worn both the red, white, and blue hoops and the green and white ones.
Few players have crossed the Old Firm barrier, but one former Rangers great has said that he acted rashly after hearing that his childhood heroes were interested.
When Gregg Wylde, a former Gers player, heard of attention from Ibrox, he was a teenager on Celtic’s books, playing for Rangers ardently in a Parkhead youth squad with future stars like James Forrest. The champion, who played 48 games for Rangers from 2009 to 2012, also said that even though he enjoyed his time with the Hoops, he had to take extreme methods to get a move to Murray Park.
Talking on Lomond Radio “I went and signed for Celtic when I was younger and Tommy Burns was there,” stated Wylde, 33, who currently plays for Broomhill in the Lowland League. I spent a few years there and had a great time. James Forrest played on the same team as me and progressed through the young system at the same time, and the several international excursions were fantastic. He has achieved success for himself.
“Tommy Burns was great, but I was too young to talk to him much at the time. My dad handled all of the contracts, although he had excellent training. At the age of 14, I transferred to the Rangers as part of a transaction. In the end, I went to see Rangers, the team I had grown up cheering for. One of the finest things that has occurred to me was moving to Rangers. My mind immediately shifted to play for Rangers when the intrigue first surfaced. I actually showed up to Celtic training one day wearing a Rangers necklace, which didn’t go down well.
As he progressed through the Ibrox ranks, he was made to feel right at home in Glasgow’s Southside. In 2011, he even played in an Old Firm League Cup final triumph over Celtic, but he was too poor to join the rest of the team in celebrating until a teammate saved him. The winger went on: “We were all leaving when we defeated Celtic in the cup final, but I was a little kid and didn’t have much money. I told Steven David that I didn’t have much when he asked, and he offered me a few pounds to help. It wasn’t just me, and he didn’t have to do it.
I believe he was also supporting the other young boys, such as Jamie Ness, Danny Wilson, and John Fleck.”
Wylde, a devoted Rangers supporter, also disclosed that, at one point, while he was on the periphery of the Light Blues team, he had to get tickets to see a game at Ibrox in the away end. He went on: “When my dad was their manager, I was in the East Stirlingshire end (for a 6-0 Scottish Cup loss in 2008) with my mother. When I used to hang around Jimmy Bell’s office, he would always remark that I might be selected to play against my dad’s team, but it never came to that. I had to pay to get in too.
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