Chris Long shares reason why he snubbed Rangers move

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Rangers attempted to bring Chris Long to Ibrox in 2015.

Striker Chris Long has told the Daily Record that he snubbed a move to Rangers in 2015 – and he now heads to Ibrox today as a Motherwell player.

Long, 24, came up through the Everton youth ranks, and had enjoyed a fine loan spell at Brentford, scoring four goals in 10 games for the Bees.

That came under Mark Warburton, and he ended up becoming Rangers manager just weeks after Long’s Brentford spell came to an end.

Now, Long claims that Warburton and David Weir wanted to reunite with him at Rangers, offering him a permanent exit from Everton having failed to break through at Goodison Park.

However, Long rejected the move to Ibrox, instead choosing to stay in the Championship and join Burnley, where he made just 11 appearances.

Long has since featured for Fleetwood Town, Bolton Wanderers and now Motherwell, who he will be playing for against Rangers today.

Long admitted that his decision was made on the basis that he had scored goals in the Championship with Brentford, so staying there made more sense than heading to the second tier of Scottish football.

The striker’s career has gone backwards since that move, and he’s admitted he would have loved to play for Rangers in front of 50,000 at Ibrox every week, but he’s now looking to beat ex-Burnley teammates Jon Flanagan and Scott Arfield today, putting his history with Rangers behind him.

“Rangers were in for me after I’d helped Brentford reach the play-offs under Mark. But Burnley had been relegated to the Championship and I had scored goals at that level before under Warburton – so I chose to go there,” said Long. “It didn’t work out for me there, however, and I feel like I’m starting again at Motherwell.”

“It would have been great to play in front of 50,000 fans at Ibrox as a Rangers player. Davie Weir and Warburton both spoke to me and wanted me up there. But that’s all in the past. I’ve played at Ibrox before when I was there with Burnley for a friendly so I know the size of the club. I’m looking forward to going there again especially with Flanagan and Arfield there – it would be good to get one over them. We’ll go there to win and if we can pull it off it would be great,” he added.