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I rejected Manchester United to sign for Rangers - it was the biggest mistake of my life
Billy Davies admits rejecting Manchester United to sign for Rangers was the biggest mistake of his life.
The former Dunfermline and Motherwell midfielder was offered a five-year deal to sign for the Old Trafford giants as a schoolboy. But after taking homesick, the Glasgow-born kid decided to return home and sign the same contract at Ibrox. Davies made his pro debut for Gers at the age of 17 but rarely featured for the club during his six years in Govan.
He then had spells in Sweden with Jönköping and Elfsborg before going on to play for St Mirren, Leicester City, the Pars and Well. However, the ex-Scotland international always wonders what might have happened had he stuck it out with the Red Devils, who went on to conquer England and Europe under the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson.
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Davies was offered a deal by then United boss, Dave Saxton, as he recalled: "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."
While his playing career didn't quite work out at Rangers, Davies' association with the club didn't end there. After cutting his teeth as a manager at Fir Park, Preston, Derby County and Nottingham Forest, the 60-year-old revealed he was later approached about the Ibrox job.
Speaking on Open Goal, he said: "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."
Davies has been out of work since 2014 but is desperate to get back into football. He added: "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."
