Player once bought for £9m claims he had chance to join Rangers a few years ago

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Alan Hutton was linked with a return to Rangers at the start of Steven Gerrard’s reign as Ibrox manager.

The former Rangers defender Alan Hutton has claimed that he had a chance to return to Ibrox ‘a few seasons ago’.

Speaking to Talksport earlier on Wednesday – shortly after he announced his retirement from playing – Hutton admitted that, by representing Rangers at the start of his career, he had fulfilled a boyhood dream.

The 35-year-old left the Gers to join Tottenham Hotspur in January 2008, for a reported fee of £9 million (BBC Sport), and moved to Aston Villa three-and-a-half-year later, where he remained until last summer.

It looked like Hutton could have been on his way out of Aston Villa 12 months earlier, with both Rangers and Middlesbrough mooted as potential destinations for the then out-of-contract right-back (Birmingham Mail).

And asked whether he could have worn the famous Light Blue strip once more, Hutton told Talksport: “A few seasons ago, possibly. There was a little bit of talk of it.

“It didn’t quite work out but I think now, as you say, with Rangers there’s a few ex-players back there. And I think if you take too many, it doesn’t really look as if you’re looking to the future if you know what I mean?

“Would it have been good going back? I’m not so sure. I don’t know, maybe. It didn’t quite work out, even though I did have a chance to at one point.”

Had he returned to Ibrox, Hutton would have had to oust the Rangers captain James Tavernier from his favoured right-back role.

However, the former Scotland international does have plenty of experience of playing on the opposite flank.