 Who was your decision, join rangers? I spoke to Daeshee at the end of the season. At that point I'd had lots of seasons where it'd been in a Premier League and it was just about staying in the league and finishing 16 for winning 10 games and drawing. I've just thought, I've got a little bit of a taste at Newcastle, at Marseit, at QPR, and now Bayl Pamwy of winning and getting promoted and Rangers made this massive play at me, first year back in Scottish Prem y ffeldyrwyd sami a Beirli Frank Mach-Partland had left halfway through the season to go and work with Mark Whabon at Rangers. And I just felt for it. Do you know what? I had Celtic kit as a kid, but I'd love to play for Real Madrid or Barcelona. I'd love to play for Dortmund or Bayern Munich. I'd love to play for Porto, Ben Fighir o Sport and Lisbon. So for me to play for Rangers or Celtic has an a rach o ffgbl, even now as a kid. A mi'r Roman Caflach, Joseph Anthony, went to Saint Agnes school in Saint Thomas o Beirchi. I got was a Celtic kit. I always got Celtic's ffeld kit, like Easter. I always ended up with a Celtic kit and they were always decent kits, umbro. You know, people's Ford and some of my mates ended up on Rangers kit, but we were always Celtic kits. So then I'd always thought I'd play, I always thought I wouldn't mind having a go with Scottish footy playing for I had a Rangers or Celtic, but I always thought I'd play for Celtic. And then, you know, as life comes at, yeah, you know, win the league at Burnley, thinking I'm going to sign a new deal, eh? And then I love Dyshie and I think I can speak about this now, but it's like it's Dyshie's money that he spends, you know what I mean? That's a good thing for a manager, but I knew what it cost to replace me. I'd done the math on it at that point. I'm 31. I've just come off probably, you know, the most consistent season I've had. Team of the year, we've won the league. I think, you know, it was a productive environment for me. I had a good working relationship with the manager. It was just what I needed. I was settled. I was living back in the North West, kids, families, great. And I spoke to him and he said at the end of the season, we'd had a pint together in a curry. And he said, listen, I, he started talking money and I don't like to talk money. I just said, look, just, just when you speak to me agent, you just sort it out. You know, you know, I don't really want to get involved in the nitty gritty. You pay me what you think's fair and I'll sign for it. So I got away thinking that's going to get done and in the middle of the next two weeks, there's again another Mexican standoff to disagreeing on figures and, and then cleverly, Frank and Rangers, the little wedge in there and go, come up, come up and look at this. So I go up to Glasgow each June. They fucking take me to Loch Lomond and the black takes me to Loch Lomond, the sun's cracking the flags, taking me to a high brock show me the silver room, the pitch, take me to the training ground. I'm going, what a fucking club this is. Now, Bailey was a good club at the time, but it wasn't Glasgow Rangers. You know, the, the impressive, you know, institution of football that is Rangers and that is Celtic as well. You know, I know, I know your league's different to ours, but still incredible respect from, from the football fraternity. And, and then I just thought, you know what, I fucking really fancied this. I love me golf and I thought, and they were saying, it's like this every day. I don't know, so the weather forecast, the fucking, so there wasn't a cloud in the sky. They're like, it's like this every day. So I know, yeah, but I thought, you know what, I'm going to, this is a chance, it's history for Rangers. It's the first season back after the, the, the, the problems they had. And even if you're shooting Scotland and your Rangers, you're second or third. So you're going to be competing for trophies, chance of playing European football, which it was going to be difficult for me to do in England with Bailey. You were newly promoted back to the league and Bailey had in the negotiation really shown me as much love as I thought it was going to be shown. So there was a crack and Rangers stepped in it. And then I decided that that was my challenge. I weighed it up and everyone was going, you're fucking mad, giving up the prems ago, and I thought, you know what, this is a ballsy challenge. Like to, to overthrow Celtic and be the first Rangers side back in the top flight and winning a title. It's a historic moment. And I thought it'd be great to be a part of like it's a real underdog story. So I've decided I'm going to do that in the middle of that. Did she get wind in it? And because he's slightly different motivation to me, he's a little bit more, more reorientated. He's then come over the top of it with a big enough for front. Bailey thinking that's the end of the Rangers one. And he expected that to be a torpedo into the Rangers transfer. And I'm like, no, no, I've decided to go to Bailey to go to Rangers. He's like, what do you mean? He's offering you more money. I'm like, I don't do this for money. Like I made one decision for money to go from Newcastle to QPR on a swore for the rest of me existence. That would be the last time I was ever ever compromised by financial compensation. And he couldn't believe it. But mine and his relationship got stronger since because he presumed like everybody or normal people are. That if someone offers you 10 grand a week more or eight grand a week more in the Premier League, you're going to stay there. But I was like, no, no, I would have stayed for that offer at the Bayer School, but now you've only offered that because a big clubs come and my my eyelids have been tamed and I really fancy this project. And you know, it was a big moment for me because my little boy Cassius is 11 now, but he was starting school. So it was his first school. So we he started schooling in Bayersden in Scotland and had like a little bit of a Glaswegian accent going on. So it's not just me. You can pick up the language. It's really easy. It's in the genetics. So see me, you think obviously you cause fucking everywhere you go, you always cause headlines, but you went or farmers League Scott Brown shite. You can't lace my boots. What was that then getting into the park head game? So so I never I never actually said that when I went up there, obviously Rangers had been demoted to the to the bottom rung of professional. Was it league? Did he go to the third league man? So remember I leave McCoystin all that with it and they were really down in the daldrums. And as I say, I grew up watching, you know, more Celtic than Rangers. I was, you know, if Celtic played Rangers, I wanted the Celtic to win. You know, I didn't really invest in it because I'm never antonium, but I would always, you know, out of the two, you know, I see my land played into my land. I always liked into my land realm with the bar slona. I always liked bar slona. So I get a chance to go up there. Obviously Rangers is fair season back in the top flight. And he'd lost in the Scottish Cuff final to Hibs, but beating Celtic in the semi-finally, if you remember. So Ronnie Dahlia was the manager of Celtic and obviously Celtic would win in the league in the trophies, but they were in the great cycle. So when I go to Rangers, first year back for Rangers in the top flight and coincided with Brendan Rodgers taking the job. So in the midst of doing the press, I've just won the league in England in the championship. I've had the most consistent season I've had in terms of behaviour and process that blackie in my life now and that she was good influence and good group in the dressing room team of the year and I'm going up to Scotland. I'm like, I'm going to fucking show these kinds like mainly I'm going to build Rangers. You know, I'm going to. And at the time you can't go into Rangers who were first year in the finger was the mark he's signing and go on Celtic. Great isn't Scott Brown. Great. I'm like in Scotland, Rangers are doing well and Celtic a shit or Celtic are doing well and Rangers a shit. The two can co-abituate and both can't be doing well the same time. It's just the country's just not geared on that one great and one shite and vice versa. In England, there's about nine teams that shared amongst where in Scotland the real focus is on the old fame. You know, Hibs, Hart, Aberdeen, et cetera, but Celtic and Rangers cut most of it. So if I turn up and I'm saying I'm just here to, oh, you know, I just go under the radar and that's not me as a personality and I'm also like, you know, with the greatest respect to Scott and I've managed against him. You know, he took the job Fleetwood that had been there and you know, in terms of if you're an elite level player in Scotland, you have to come south. Diolch yn fawr. Barry Ferguson, you know, Graeme Sunes, ac keep going back. No matter what, it's the same way the Welsh. They can't stay and play in the Welsh Premier League. You can't. The Irish can't stay and playing for Shamrock Rovers. Northern Irish can't stay and play for Linfield. You've got to come here the same way in the 80s, our players had to go to Italy or to Spain or to Germany because they weren't seen as the hardest challenge. You know, if you want to be a tough fighter now, you've got to go to UFC, Bellator, Cage Warriors, One Championship, et cetera, but you want to be the fucking top man and remembered forever. The UFC is where you need to be at and for me, the Premier League in my era of football is where you need to be at. So if you're anyone who's fucking anyone and you think you can mix it with the big boys and you see Patrick Vieiraire and Roy Keane and Paul Skolls and Michael Ailey and Lampard, Gerard and all these, that's just the name but a few. And you sit and look in the window at that. No one you could be in that room. Then for me, you're a shitbag like you're a shitbag. Now Barry Fakeson to be fair to him was the King of Scotland. Barry was the King of Scotland. King of Rangers, that's his club captain. And to be fair to him, we had the bollocks to come down. He didn't move to Man United or Liverpool or one of those clubs that maybe his ability was to be fitting off. He had to go and sign for Blackburn Rovers. Then he went to Birmingham City and I think he won a league cup and I think he went back north of the border. Maybe not being as good as what he thought he was going to be down here. With kind of Graham Sooner's category. But I think he certainly went back up there and thought, you know what, I've had a fucking right go, a captain rangers of one everything I can win at my boy or club and I've gone down south of the border and had a right go. And I don't know, I just look at them lads like a Scott. I've had a pipe with Scott as I say, you know, we've laughed about what went on in Scotland and he's a good fella, he's not a bad fella. Great saving for Celtic football club. And I said to him like, I just had no respect for you. Have you just fight Bellator and you don't come UFC? I think you're a fanny, why not come up on UFC? I mean, that's fair enough. So that was my matter. And then when I turn up there, I'm like, I'm not coming here to take part. I'm coming here to win the title. Brendan's gone in and he smashed it to be fair. I think Brendan's a chameleon. So Brendan is brilliant, but there's a sell-by date on him. And you know, he says he's going to be here for another three years. But if he gets on off the fucking Saudi Arabia, he'd be off in a heartbeat. But again, you know, they went up there and Celtic and to be fair to them, Brownie. And I think they had some good lads there. And you don't call them a Gregory who thinks a good player. He's a good captain. The boy who went to Arsenal, Tainey, you know, the Rodgers, he had a good little and Brendan going in. I think because of what had happened with Ronnie Dahlia, I think Brendan going in had got Celtic standards raised massively. So we were going in Rangers with a championship in Scotland team. I thought it was better because it'd beaten Celtic in the semi-final. But it was probably a bad vision of Celtic under Ronnie Dahlia. Brendan had come in and standards had gone north and to be fair to him. Did he win treble, treble or something? He absolutely smashed the dead end. And I think the likes of Scott and all that, maybe their career and time at Celtic was not as professional as what it could have been under Ronnie Dahlia. And I think me signing for Rangers and coinciding with Brendan coming in, I think he put a few of them lads on notice and to be fair to Celtic, they got some good players in there and made the players the order. They had better and Brendan's coaching quality, they never fucking looked back, did they? What was the old fun game like for you, the atmosphere? Do you know, it was a strange one in terms of I'd been moaning at stuff in-house. You know, we've had my time again. Yeah, because standards were just poor. Like now I went up and I was a little bit behind in terms of my own fitness. So you're a bit frustrated with yourself when you're looking for your own fitness. And because I'd had such a good season, by the end of everyone listening to me, if I said it was something, they'd go fuck on Ellie's moaning, but he's usually right. And I went up to Rangers and I had no credibility in the dressing room. And I just, because I'd not done anything at Rangers, and I just started fucking moaning at them. You know, when you've got your taff in years and Lee Wallace and new lads, you've been there, settle for the bit. And I'm just turning up going, don't do that shit, don't do that. That's not going to work. But I'm saying that because that's not going to work in the Premier League. That doesn't mean to say it won't work against fucking Dundee or Dundee United. It probably does. And if you're Rangers, you get away with bad habits until you face Celtic or until you face a decent side in European competition. So when I get up there and I'm criticising everything straight away, out the gate going, that's not good enough. This is not good enough. So into the adult, you don't, you get people's, you don't get people's support because you're just criticising everything. Whether it's just or not, you're just seen as a fucking moaning cunt. So I actually got off on the wrong fuck because I was moaning at people and I made a huge mistake there. It was a valuable life lesson. We then get into the nitty gritty of it and all the stuff that I was moaning about not being at the correct intensity and not being the correct way, you know, the way we defended our plays, the way we trained, et cetera. Didn't really raise their head because you're beating Dundee and you're drawing with some, you know, you're not getting beat. But the seventh or eighth game we were playing Celtic at Celtic Park. So I've been moaning and moaning and moaning in the background anyway. We get to Celtic Park and I've been there kind of two months now, two, two and a bit months and I just was like, what the fuck have I done signing here? These are fucking miles away, like to just miles away. And I can't change them all. And I'm moaning and I'm getting more and more frustrated, which is making me even more of a moaning cunt. And it's alienating me further and further from the lad to a need to effect. So we're playing the old fair and we done the team shape on Friday. I think it's a Sunday, 12, 30 kickoff. So the Friday we do the team shape. And me and Andy Halliday are playing centre mid and I think he'll crank yards in the 10 and it's four, five, one. And you know, it's a little bit more of a defensive structure. And we've got our plan and that's the manager's prerogative. And you know, then we get to the hotel. I think we're staying in my home on the satay for the game. And I always remember this James because I was sitting with Lee Wallace, Kenny Miller and the Aleday. We're all like mad rangers. The boss lads good lads love football. So I used to just take it. You know, I find it like when I was saying to you about the air and makeup. I find it funny just to wind people up, you know, just say mad things and then not say anything so they don't actually know what. So I'd say like, I just, just to noise the lads up just for the conversation at the table. I'd say, who do you think the best player in the world is? And he'd go, you know, fachan Ronaldo or Messi or fachan Adgo. And he'd all give the names and then he'd go, in the end he'd go. Who do you think it is in Adgo like Thomas Muller? And he'd go, what? I'd go fachan Thomas Muller, most goals in the world cup. And I just, just to piss and he'd all be arguing, what you fachan? Well, better than Messi just. And I didn't believe it, but it was just to fucking noise them up. Just so they're all taking the bait on it. So I always remember being in the hotel and I always remember winding Kenny Miller up that night about saying Thomas Muller's the best player in the world. He scored the most goals at the World Cup was me logic. He's got the, you know, he's more than. I was on the other argument was making was Marislav closest better than like somebody else because he scored more World Cup goals anyway. The Scottish lads in there Kenny Miller and that they're absolutely losing the shit. And then from nowhere Andy Halliday has been part of it and he just goes quiet. So we're all sitting at the table just goes quiet and then get off. Like then he comes back and you can see he's fucking like upset and he's a proper stone kid and he's a good kid. So like you thinking someone in the family or you know, so he's had some bad news. So he's like then then it gets out that the manager's changed the team but he's text Andy to tell him he's not in the team for the whole thing. I sat him on a Sunday morning. So he's never done this. So I'm like, well, what the fuck's this? We're playing the biggest game of the season. He's done the team where and he's fucking shit himself and change the team sat tonight and he hasn't had the bollocks to pull the kid one on one. He's text him and he's gone. And he's a mad rangers fan mad rangers family. But that's upset. The other lads who were quite close to him. So I'm like fucking it. Anyway, sleep it off. Get up the next day. Warbentons like the leader and he's not the leader. Like I'm like, he's just his ass has gone. So I think he's a jarg anyway based on his training sessions and what's been done. But I've had to sit on it because I'm thinking I just keep moaning everything. Everyone thinks I'm a cunt like it. I'm just literally moaning that everything. So I'm like Victor Meldrew and I'm thinking like just. But I'm thinking a few things need to go wrong here before they finally go. Listen, you were right there. Can you fix it and other gone? Yeah, happily. I was, you know, you almost have to take with watching your kids fuck stuff up before you fix it. You almost have to allow it to unfold. And in football terms, I'm watching this unfold. I'm going, this is just dead. And for like, I've did not learn the lessons from the Scottish Cove final. I'd identified by the games that watched that. They had a weakness for conceding goals from set plays. They can see the two in the Scottish Cove final against Hibbs lost the game on it. And he had, I think 14 or 16 instances in the games that I'd watch where set plays were a huge problem. So I'm getting him thinking right first port of call set plays are dead easy. It's a set piece. You just get organized from the start. Don't we don't do that here. I'm like, what do you mean? Yeah, we don't do set plays here. We don't practice that place. And I'm like, well, you fucking shit at them. You lost a Scottish Cove final on them. Why? We don't do that here. That's not what we do. So that's not a good enough answer for me because I'm going. We'll have work for bum, bum, bum in a Premier League for the last fucking 12 years. I've been on the continent and this must this mad football club where you're the only football club that doesn't have to fucking practice set plays. And low and behold, you're absolutely useless at defending them. Can you not understand the correlation? Like sometimes in football, they forget that it's a repetition sport. If you keep repeating your action with personal practice, you'll improve and get better at it. From a team perspective, the more you drill stuff, the better you get at it. But Mark Warburton, who is Rangers manager at the time, managed Brentford. But whilst I was playing in the Premier League and becoming a footballer and experience in the arena and the challenge of that, he was working as a banker in the city. So, you know, I give everyone the respect and the due, but for me, I live a life of meritocracy. If you act like a cunt, I treat you bespokely towards that. Now, if you act really competently and you show your worth on a daily basis, then I treat you exactly. Life isn't, you just treat everyone great. That's not possible. You treat people how they treat you or how they interact with the world. And if I see someone grafting and putting the working, I go above and beyond to help them. If I see someone slacking or fucking not doing the work, I'll have to ignore them or give them a kick up your ass. That's the nature. So Rangers then, you've ended up leaving then. What happened to the gambling? That was at Rangers, wasn't it? So it's an interesting one, this. And I don't think I've said this publicly. So the Rangers one for me was, as I say, I've been saying stuff that was going to go wrong. Team changers, I'm in the dressing room at Celtic Park and, you know, you want to go out of the stadium like first off for him and it's hostile. It's, you know, at this time, there was still, I think we had 1500, 2000 fans in it now. They've closed their wayfiles off, which is shite stupid. Mae, no fans now, yeah? Well, at this point, there was still a bit of a crowd in. So we're at Celtic Park and I remember doing a warm-up on that. And I said to you, I knew I was ready. Well, I'll just go back to my debut when I told you the team's naid. I turned to Fowler. Is that my name? I go out for the warm-up, my ass has gone. The hero in the coward. I'm shitting myself. Do the warm-up. I'm all over the gaff in the warm-up. It's not, you know, your touch is not quite right. Everything you're doing, you're getting away with it. But like, you know, you're just not in sync. This is the Reebok for my debut. And I go up the tunnel and my ass is still going. Like I've fucking butterflies in that. Can I swim here? Like this is the fucking, this is sync or swim. This is matching the day tonight. This is goals on Sunday in the morning. This is all the papers. This isn't like the reserves I hide. Like this is the fucking real deal here. Like this is everything you've worked for. And you're only going to get the one chance that my ass fell and bring him round yet. And I remember going up the tunnel after the warm-up. Nervous. And I remember sitting in the dressing room and I just remember thinking, you've worked your cock off to be here. Everyone who's sacrificed for you to be here. You've done the training. You haven't cut a corner. You haven't fucking laged it. You haven't been in the nightclubs. If you're ever, ever going to be prepared for this, you're prepared. So just fucking trust yourself when you get out there. And the calm has just descended on me in the tunnel. This is five to 10 to three. I just remember looking round and going, fucking, there's Robbie Father who grew up watching this. I'm like, I just remember this calmness. And I remember going out in the tunnel and just being cold, like cold clinical. And I speak to people at the bar and I'm like, that's the moment you know whether you're fucking built for the fucking proper stuff or not. Like when you know, when the chaos is there and you're going cooler, calmer, more calculated, people usually speed up in that or. And I just remember the feeling no one could ever pay me for. Like I'm a 20 year old boy. You doesn't know what's about to come. Who's work for this moment. And just the calmness of knowing I've done the work. I'm as capable of being here as everybody because I've paid me dues. I've paid the rent. And I can't wait to get out here and perform. And as I say, I went into the first team there and I never came out and never came out. I never stayed in there till the Celtic mob grassed me up with the betting accounts, which was Paddy Power in Scotland. And then obviously got a one game ban in Scotland 18 month ban in England reduced to nine. So, so all that played out was and I come back now dressing rooms. So I'm crystal clear, calm, making me debut in the Premier League at 20. When I'm in the dressing room at Celtic Park for the old fame looking round me thinking standards, you know, not where they need to be. What you mark warb. And I'm an observer like I speak a lot, but I also watch a lot. I don't miss much of it. I have an illness that I fucking spot everything. Do you mean when you see someone acting a cunt in school and before you know it three weeks later he's someone trying his hand. I seen it three weeks before and I'm like, I should have nipped that in the bud there. I've always had this incredible ability to predict the future because I'm very observant. So sit and watching. Feel frustrated at Rangers, but I think I can change it. I'd almost left just before the deadline when he said I had to sign Lescott. I put my body in front of Lescott for the football club mainly because I knew he wasn't good enough. He'd grasped on me in the FA thing and I knew a physio would add them at West Brom and I spoke to the physio and he said his knees a dust don't sign them. And I'd relayed this up the food chain and I said to Warburton, I'm not sharing the dressing room with him. So if you sign him, I'm off dead street forward, but let me know because he's a fucking grass and I don't play with grasses and he's a prick. So that was it. I'd probably get on with him fine now, but at that moment in time, that's where I was at with Jolian. So Warburton goes, I'm not have a player dictating to me who I'm signing, I'm not signing. I'm not saying I'm not saying, sign him, don't sign him. That's up to you. But if you sign him, I'm out dead street forward. Now I've been up to Scotland. I'm going to be the best player in Scotland. I'm the mark he's signing. So this was the 30th or 29th of September. The deadline is 31st. In the midst of that, Jolian daisus phoen mi and said, look, come back to barely. It's not working. Get yourself back down here. You're right back in. You shouldn't have gone like, our relationships growing stronger for the fact that I walked away and because I walked away and never took the financial is respect for me. I think grew because he thought, fucking hell, he's a man of principle. I'm like fair enough I'll have that. He hasn't signed for the money or been thrown by the money. So he's phoned me saying, come back, you know, war, but he actually said to me, war, but it's not for you. He said, he's not your type of character. You don't, and he was right. He was right on that. And I thought that was because he selfishly wanted me to stay up there and make his job easier. Do you know what I mean? And then I get up there and as I say, I'm in the dressing room. I tell to part of watch loads of things and he's walking around doing a team talk. I knew the thing that had gone on with Andy Halliday and he's in his suit and ranges. You travel away and suit shit and tie. And he's shaking like a shit and dog his hand shaking almost like he's got like Parkinson's or a multi neurons disease or something like he's fucking shaking. And I just remember fucking thinking, oh my God, it's a battle for you, you cunt. You're a fucking fanny. Your ass has gone here. You fucking shit yourself on the team. You fucking standard to shit and your ass has gone here. And I just remember thinking I'm going to have to go out here and I'm getting me ass handed to me. I knew I'd said I'm going to be the best player in Scotland and now I'm getting, I'm just going to get covered in egg. And if we get beat here, I'm getting it. And for being a braggish, a bragging English cunts coming off of the boarder saying you're going to be the fucking main man. This is, I'm getting me licks here and I'm going to have to take it like a man. So I've decided as we're going out, I thought it was going to be tough this game but I'm not going to get sent off. My standard is going to be sky and win, lose or draw. Everyone on this pitch is going to know and respect me after the game because all he wanted I think was for me to do something for mad and get sent off. That was the narrative. So it was like this tin the box, this powder keg was building between me and Brownie. You know, the famous thing with the Anne Sheik and that and I'd looked him in the eyes but he'd waited until we move past it looked down and he was going look he hasn't even got the bollocks look him in the eye look at level with you. If Scott wants to fucking walk in and you can ask Scott this self we had a bit of a laugh as I said in the dressing room. I think he's had a great career and he was a great player. There was no, there was no me and Scott Brown, you know, Rangers themselves are football club but bigger than Joey Barton and Scott Brown. This was Rangers and Celtic being back on the table nor for the border, which is for me the Scottish League for the first time because Rangers, I don't know what went on but you don't want, if you're Scottish football and you demote Rangers to the third division you ruin your own product. They ruin the game in Scotland by doing that. You know, the football clubs cooked the books. Of course they do. All our big clubs do here look at all the now you need incredible lawyers to stop you know as some of the big clubs in our country are fine. If you've got the best lawyers then you don't get any problems. Rangers at the time was a bit of a mess and it should have been about Rangers and Celtic but they wanted to make it about the protagonists in the middle of that which was me and Scott Brown. Game gets played. We're right in the game. He's got the wrong team selection. We're right in the game. We ended up losing. I think we're 2-1 down to Phil Sendross who I don't think he should have played. Phil, he wasn't fit enough and he dropped him, he fulfilled. Phil Sendross gets sent off jumps and mistimes and balls it with out of 10 men and they score 3-1 not long afterwards. I end up playing middle centre back of a back 3 with James Taverny at right side centre back and Lee Wallace left side centre back. Both can't defend for Toffey. Both fantastic going forward. Really good attack on full backs both in the defensive qualities they severely lack and I'm definitely not a middle centre back against Moussa Denbelly. So the game ends up finishing and we're right in the game at 2-1 or 3-1. They end up scoring a 4 from 5th quite late but that's our back 3. We're down to 10 and we lose 5-1 and at the end of the game a walk round I thought you've fucking come up giving it the biggin. You have to fucking take your fucking licks as a man. I fucking clapped all the fans, shook every one of the Celtic players hands, told them well done, looked every single one of them in the face especially Scott. We're fucking well done and I thought right that's ground zero now. Now the fucking work begins. Now the venture to put Rangers back on the top of Scott is full to begin. You've had to come up instead. So the game finishes that Sunday night all my mates are up for the old fair. They're all wanting to go out and glass go on the aisle. I'm like, am I going out anyway? Am I showing my face in public? We're fucking 5-1. Fucking not going out. So they're all out and about. I fucked them all off. Mundi were off. I'm sorry, Mundi were back in training. So I'm thinking right need to get in Mundi because the job starts here. You know that's the first game I've lost in Scotland. Only lost one game in Scotland. That was it. All the other games had one or drawn. I think only played seven or eight. I think that was the eighth game. So come in on the Mundi, thinking all right. Right. Enough's gone wrong now. Now we can get cracking. Now that we don't do that here. Exclusives got to wash because we've considered the goals and set plays in this game. So we'll come in Monday morning. Mark and Davey were notorious for like every game you played. Did have an hour and hour and 15 minutes debriefing the game. Played fucking card and beef in the cup or Peterhead. An hour and 15 minutes. All the good and bad things that you done. That was like, you know, that's their way of coaching. So come in on the Monday morning thinking right. We're going to get a nitty gritty phase defeat, but it's going to be blood, blood guts and fucking all the all the go. But we need it because if you want to overthrow Celtic, you know, that's the team you've got to beat. And we've just been fucking shellach by them in the first encounter. That's the first game after the semi-final where they beat them, where they thought they had the number again. Brendan's in town, not Ronnie Dahlia. So we realize at this point, fucking hell, this is a different entity. This Celtic team is under a different steam. Come in on the Monday. No meeting. All right. So there's no meeting. All right. That's weird. That's the first time that's happened. So it's almost like the biggest, biggest defeat we've had. They just pretended that it hasn't happened. Get out of the train and the holiday is not happy. Daddy has been left out the team. He came on in the game, but he came on like 20 minutes ago or something like that. So he's fuming. So training on the Monday morning, James at Rangers Football Club was the best training I was ever involved in the morning after that old fame because people were fucking angry. Proud footballers were really angry about how their football team had performed and the scorn that comes on in that country if you lose an old fame. And training was the level I was used to in England because you'd have to train at or above match intensity. You can't train below and expect to turn on on a match day. You might get away with that for a fucking two, three month period. But at the level we play at, you've got to be on at all a fucking time. So we play that game and getting the trainers right on the edge. It's like you've been involved in them sessions where there's a few tackles flying around, but it's fucking right on the edge where it's a good hard session both teams are going at it. But like if the ship bags in the group are on notice going fucking hell, this is one tackle away from a fisty cuffs. Do you mean it was right on that edge where the best teams had trained in, the best teams had played in and been involved in knew and respected that little space. If it bubbles over it, a few years after pull that back in and get in the middle of it, if it goes under a few years after moan at each other or fucking kick off to get it back in that zone. But it was writing, it wasn't this Mark Warburton, fucking Academy, fucking nonsense stuff that we've been doing, passing off mannequins centre ass overlap and putting crosses in fucking Academy, you know nonsense. Now was hopefully going to be gone with saying it properly and the manager Warburton didn't like it and stops the session halfway through because me and Andy are having it and he's on the opposite team and he's pissed off, he hasn't been in the team and I'm on the other team and we're going at it and there's a few players on our team who were getting dragged along in it but me and him are really going alpha leather and the managers ask us because he thinks it's going to kick off. Now me and Andy had a great working relationship, I really respect them. I think he's a great kid, cared a lot about the football club and I spent a bit of time with him away from the football arena because he's into his music and his fashion. He's a good lad. I've met him a few times in Dubai since he was Mrs. He's a cracker. So we're sad. We know it's getting tasty but there's no like it's not going to boil over. Manager stops the session and goes right lads. We're going to do shooting on the edge of the box here. So goes down and I've gone here. I'm like what the fuck is nonsense? So now you've got Clint Hill taking a touch on the edge of the box and having a shot someone's fizzing it out to him. They're just nonsense. I've just walked in. I just I didn't even I've walked down to the session what he was doing and I just kept walking. I just went this is a load of shit. This is a waste of my time and just started walking in. And if you if you if you've been the 10 grand arranger. So the staff things on the second floor. So as I'm walking in Frank Macpartland who's who's signed me is looking out the balcony and I've just gone. This manager is a fucking clown and I've just walked in going into the dressing room started getting changed and I'm about to just go up. So I'm getting changed. The lads have stayed out doing this shooting session and fucking Davey where walks in after about 15 minutes and goes to me. Manager wants to see you upstairs. So I'm like, why? He's gone. He's not happy the way you've spoken and the way you spoke to other players and he wants an apology off you. He wants to see you upstairs in his office now. So I'm like, I respect Davey because Davey played for Evan under mwys. You know, so I respected Davey's career and he's a good fella Davey. I went Davey listen. I need to go home here. That's not good for me to go upstairs because I think I'm gonna fucking say what I feel here. And he's gone, no, no, he wants to see you. I'm like, no problem. So at this point, I've had enough. I'm checking out like in the side. I can't play for this country. I can't play for this manager. He's not for me. So go upstairs. This is as I say, the Monday or the Tuesday after the thing go upstairs and go in. So it's me, Davey and warbs in the office and he goes, yeah, sit down. So I'm sitting across the table. He goes, I think you need to apologise to the players. So I'm like, what for? The way you spoke, the way you spoke to people in recent weeks, the way you think it's not acceptable. I said, well, look, I'm not going to apologise to the other players. Well, I think you should. Well, Mark, I've just told you I'm not going to do that. So are you going to force me to do it? He's gone, no, I'm going, well, it's not happening then. I don't think I should apologise. I'm trying to raise standards. I want the teams to be better. I've come here to win leagues. I'm the only person here who would think of playing a Premier League today. There's no one else in this team. And there's no one you could coach in the Prem. Otherwise you'd be there. I've given up playing in the Prem to come and help Rangers get back to the top and all of seniors. And that's it. Then I've opened up subpar standards and I said to him, look Mark with the greatest respect here. I've been doing this since I've been consciously away. You went off in your teenage years and your senior years, your 20s and your 30s to work in the banking industry in London. And with the greatest respect here, I've probably forgotten more about football than you're ever likely to know. Like this is my vocation. This is what I do, professional football. So when I'm telling you to do stuff that I know works in the Premier League environment and you're turning round saying to me, we don't do that here. That doesn't fucking cut with me because I'm out there in the arena like sat Sunday. I'm out there getting my ass handed to me in front of 60,000. That's Celtic Park and then getting ridiculed by the old fucking country. And the reason that's happening is because you're turning habits and the way you set your teams up is ineffective and inefficient. So if you don't fucking like that, tough shit, but I can't leave because the deadlines passed. I can't register for another club until the first of January. So I'm trapped here. Do I want to play for you? Apps are fucking literally not because I don't think you know what you're doing. But I'm here. So how do you want this to play out? I've just joined Loch Lomond. So if you want, you can just fuck me off and I'll just play golf at Loch Lomond every day. But I've come here to be a success and we're now incompatible. He says a few things back. I ended up getting after them a bit more. And in his credit, Davey were fucking stepped up and tried to save Warbs. Warbs just put his hands in his head and just stuck his hands on the table because I gave it to him that tight and he had nowhere to go. And to be fair to Davey and I'll always respect Davey off the back of it. Davey said to me, what the fuck have you played for? What fucking career have you had? Because Warbs is getting it tight for not having a career. Now, when you come for someone like me, you better fucking be Wikipedia because before I attack you'll have an argument if you're usually downloaded. So I'll have gone online and I've looked on your ma's Facebook accounts. I'll have seen all your cousins and come out and never go to a fucking brawl unless I've got some solutions. So Davey pipes up. He says, what the fuck have you played for? What career have you had? I said, shut the fuck up you. I said, you're a center half. I said, you didn't even come through the system. I said, you went out to America and collegiate football and then back door. And you didn't come to get to England till you were 28. I said, and then if you remember where you turned up, Evan, I'm an Evertonian. He's played 5-4-4-1. You never fucking moved off the 18 yard line in fucking four years at Evan. So don't talk about playing central midfield. Central midfielders, as you know, think we're the best players because we have to have 360 degree view of the football pitch where for me goalkeepers are last picking school. Changed a bit in the modern era. Defenders are limited midfielders who actually can't... Defenders are midfielders who aren't good enough to play midfield. So you go fucking right back or left back here if you're right or left-footed. If you're ugly and you're at the ball and you don't mind the rough and tumble, center half, if you're a shipbag, sweeper and you have a big area, so go and do your scrapping. But center mids after, do everything. Forward's then at the flash. Flash areas, quick score loads of goals, get all the money, get all the beds. Wingers are not good enough to score goals and players forward and not brave enough to play center mid. And a little bit more skillful in the fullback. So football for me is a dead simple game. It's the same as the school playground. So me and Davey are having it. And as I say, we have a bit of a ding dong. He comes over the top. And as I say, I've got enormous respect for Davey. But at that point, what's coming out your mouth and that's your manager and assistant manager. I know there's no way I can take back that stuff. And what I'm saying is quite personal to him. And I know I can just feel when you see a bridge just getting bans in front of you. So I'm like, but there's no way I can continue. This relationship is now untenable. So I leave the training ground that day. And I'm thinking, all right, me and the manager have had a full ding dong. He knows what I'm thinking. I fucking give it to him tight. By the way, they give it to me as well. You know, we've had a war of words. But where I'm from, my culture, that's a cleaning. That's a cleansing. That's a right. We move on now. We move past this. There's no grudges. You're like, men and men. We've had our words and we move forward. And I come out of that. And he suspends me. All right. So he suspends me from the training ground war but for four days while there's a club investigation based on what I've said in this office. So Richard Goff and a few senior people in the club, John Gregg. So I just tell them what I said. I said, this is what I've said. I just thought, this is exactly what I've said. So you can see them going. Fucking hell, he's like half not long yet. So I've just owned up to it. Then they get a phone call on the Friday or Saturday to say and it's Warbett phones my agent and says, listen, you're not going to believe this in the midst of me suspending them from the club. And there's going on. The Scottish have a have contacted us and we've had our allegations. He's got a betting account and they need to investigate it. So Warbs then in the midst of me being offered the suspension phones me on this. So I'm thinking a fucking range is from me under the book here, under the bus. So as it turns out, we played Celtic, lost five one Celtic. If you remember played on the Wednesday or Tuesday night in the camp new against Barcelona. And I knew Celtic was shit based on our traction with them. Even though they beat us, the game was quite close. The send enough massively changed it and we were massively underprepared and it wasn't much in the game. They were better than us. Know that they were the head of us, but there wasn't loads in it. There wasn't certainly as much as what people felt. Then they were playing Barcelona. So I've gone to all my mates. Listen, this Celtic team is bang average. They're not as good as what they are. Cos once I've had a scrap with you or played against you, I'm very good at nullifying you the next time now. Cos I go, all right, that's what he's good at. Right, don't do that. Quite scheming in that way and play the game and go, all right, Celtic are the head of us, but it's not insurmountable. We'll get to them, but there's loads of work to be done anyway. I realized Monday, Tuesday with warps. It's not happening. Then I get the phone call Friday. I think it was that this betting thing. Unbi known to me, me being me. I've told all my mates I've said Celtic is shit. They're playing Barcelona. I said they'll get pumped. So you had the over two and half over three and half over four and half over five and a half goals on the best paddy power markets. So I've said lump, lump Celtic to get pumped by Barca. Anyway, I think Celtic beat Barca beat them 7-0 or 7-1 in the Camp Nou. And obviously I had the bet on Barca on all the overgoals and told all my mates to. They didn't mind this was paddy power who had had a working relationship with paddy power for years where I'd been paid in betting account tokens and to, you know, to do stuff for them, speaking for them. You know, me and paddy power was the rainbow leases campaign. Me, Stonewall and paddy power started that. And obviously it's been picked up by the Premier League now. So I've had these bets on Celtic paddy power. And when I think back to it, I tell them a bit of a conspiracy theorist there. But before I signed for Rangers or after just after I signed for Rangers, I played in the BMW at Wentworth PGI and I got sat on the table with David Desmond and J.P. who I think were the major Celtic men. And they were feeling me out in terms of, you know, if he was this cocky little cunt who'd be fucking, so I end up sitting with them. And then I go to Rangers. I have this bet. And I've had this bet in account for, say, eight years. And there's a whistleblower in paddy power who's Celtic fan. And, you know, I'm like, so for me, I'm like fucking grass on bastard. Like, who doesn't have a 40 coupon? It's not like we were fixing games. You know, we're having a 40 coupon. Like just seeing the lad there tonight, like, you know, I grew up in a betting shop betting on horses and Rangers will be Celtic, or Manuel will be Liverpool, or Evan will be, you know, a coupon for me was what a saddy afternoon's 40 was about getting up. Your granddad, he'd go to, you know, fly around a betting shop. Your granddad would come in with the mirror, mirror reader. And he'd have a couple of betting slips and he'd be writing his horses out. And his 40 coupon. And you had, like, your three of eyes. Or, you know, the pools it was. And you're checking in on tele-text, you know. Do you ever remember the one used to have, like, a stamp and stamp? The pools? Yeah, well, that's the ball. The pool, yeah. What was the fucking spot the ball or something you used to have? Well, that was more to raise money when they all spot the ball and you peeled it off. So I grew up in all of that. But as I say, you know, pigeon toss at school, you know, I wasn't really into cards. I wasn't really a card player. Never, like, played cards on the coaches and all that. But a game of Ed Tennis for a ffiver, a game of Table Tennis for a ffiver, a game of FIFA for a ffiver. Like, if I play anything with you, I have to compete. There has to be a bet on it. So I play golf for a ffiver. I play at the same intensity I would in a play-off final. I swear, like, I swear, like, I'm trying to win as much as I would be trying to win a play-off final if I'm playing for a ffiver or a tenner on a Saturday or a Sunday on a golf course because I just love competing. And it's not about the money. It's more about the challenge of whatever the discipline is. You're doing it in when it's snooker, pool, golf, tennis, ffuckan. Love all sports, but specifically football. And I've owned and had lots of interest in resources. And in the resource world, I could bet on my horses to win. I couldn't bet on my horses to lose. I could also bet on horses that I had information. I had my mates with jochis and ride and more trainers and new. But I couldn't back my horse to lose in the race, which is make sense. So you don't win in football. We went from an era where we could bet on everything when I first started. When I first opened my best fair, Paddy Power Accounts, you can bet on anything. And then they went, right, you can't bet on matches in your league. Now you can't bet on matches if you're in the cup and that's even if you've been knocked out. Then you can't bet on anything. So the regulation was slowly ratcheted up over the course of my career. But I just kept having a coupon in the background. You know, I've got a five team accumulator on a Saturday in France, Italy, Germany. What the fuck's I got to do me? I'm playing in Ffuckan England. And it had been unchecked. And I knew all lads in the dressing room. Everyone was at it. So, and then everyone's getting sponsored by gambling things. We're all getting money off gambling. They used to come to us, everything you off and say, here's £1,000 bet on tokens if you open an account with us or there's five. You know, so it's like, it's not like we're taking performance and answering drugs or like they frown upon it, but they're not really going to banners for having a 40 coupon. Ffuckan low and behold, you know, due to the, you know, the draconian rule sets. The fucking, you know, Tenali's going to miss a year's 40. If I want for having a fucking coupon. With a jerk it. I got 18 months. I got one match in Scotland. They banned me to Scottish FF, we're great. And the Scottish FF because I left Rangers after it. Never, ever thought I was going to go back to Ramdon and turn up for the, for the investigation. And I remember turning up with my lawyers and they were fucking delighted. I turned up mainly because I give them the Q-dots. I go on and I'll use, use of giving me the charge and I'm not going to disrespect you by going, fuck Scotland. I'm never going back there. I turned up and went, you know, fair cop. I have had the betting account. I explained it to them and they give me one match. I went to England and, you know, I'm Jesse James and I in the FA's eyes. Even though I'm a proud Englishman who wants England to do well, you know, the FA for whatever reason want me out the game. They want me out. Cyan died if they could. They'd get rid of me because I say things that they don't necessarily like hearing. You know, so when they banned me for the gambling, I wrote an article with Gopalaman, Alice the Campbell and took a bit of advice off a few people who know who were creative. And I wrote an article which forced the FA to relinquish the, as they were banning me for 18 months, they had a £12 million a season sponsorship for the England team with lad Brooks. So I'm like fucking joking. Like how can you be so draconian in one hand and yet user in bed with betting companies and you got all, I'm like, it makes no sense. If gambling's no good for everybody and we're not allowed to bet, otherwise your banners for that long will stop everybody, stop the kiosk being at a football stadium, stop the advertisement and. But like fair enough, I'm taking performance and answering drugs. You know, I failed the Nandrolone or an anabolic steroid test I get. Listen, get them out the game. He's out for having a fucking football coupon. You know, fucks I like. What was it like retiring? I didn't really retire, did I? So I got banned for that 18 months. So in the midst of what was it like in Scotland, sign for Bailey, went back to Bailey, trained with Bailey in November, December, played again for Bailey, first game back, I scored against Southampton. Was this after the ban? No, I didn't get. I got banned in Scotland for the game, but I don't need lands in Scotland. Or so you could stop the investigation. I come back to England, play as I'm playing. I have to face it in about the, and it's going, it's getting protected. It's dragging on in about the April. I've got to go down to the FA. I've got to go down to a full day there. I think that's my last game, the game before, as it was, the FA have put off the hearing. So I can manage to play on the Sunday against Man United, so play against Man United. I think we lose 2-1. I should have took Anthony Marsh out. He broke on the corner and I thought I'll get to him. I could have whipped him up and took a yellow card, but I thought I'll catch him. And didn't realize how fast the fuck I was. He fucking accelerated away. So my last memory, my last regret is I should have fucking tripped him up. He ends up breaking, passes to Rooney and Rooney scores. We ended up losing the game 2-0. And in the midst of that, the FA come back. I thought I was going to get six months, three months. You know, I've had a 40 coupon. They're like 5s and 10s. It's nonsense. They knew it weren't match fixing or fucking throwing games. They knew it weren't fucking spot betting or any of that. They knew it was allowed to have a 40 coupon. Me 10,040 bets or whatever were mixed in with 10,010 bets. Formula one, because I'm an avid sports fan. I'm a footballer with a disposable income. I've finished work at half two. I'm coming in. I love my horse racing. I love my tennis. I love my golf. I love my sport. I'm single. I'm sitting on the couch and I go, I'm going to have a 50 quid on that horse. I've got a new talk to say. I'm going to have a 50 quid on lead to be Castleford in the rugby lead tonight. Not for any other reason. I'm just watching sports anyway. And I'd rather have a bit of vested interest on it. They had all my accounts. I gave them every account they had. Pros, tallies, pros and cons. I think I'd lost about over me 12 year, 14 year cycle or whatever. I think I was down 15 grand. You know, with put say 400 grand's worth of bets on. I was 15 grand down. So I hadn't even like, it's just a lad off on a punt. You know, casual better. And they fucking absolutely threw the kitchen sink at me like to give me an 18 month ban. And I'm 33. That was like a death blow for me. Do you know what they were doing on appeal? It was reduced to nine because no banner. They never, they were outside the president. Since I've been a manager, they've, they tried to get, they've, you know, with the Stendall incident, they've, they've helped the police in investigations, which the FA should never be doing. They've hacked our computers when we were at Fleetwood, decided accusers of being racist on a couple of occasions. So there's this thing in the FA that wants me out the game, which is fine. And I may well be out the game. What they don't understand is I'm way more dangerous to them out the game than they are many.