Nikica Jelavic has denied that he forced his transfer out of Rangers.
On Tuesday after a solid month of speculation the Croatian striker joined Everton for an undisclosed fee with just over two hours left in the transfer window.
Losing his leading scorer and having no time to find a replacement was the nightmare scenario for Ally McCoist with no new faces arriving at Ibrox.
On Tuesday Rangers owner Craig Whyte claimed that the player wanted to leave but speaking at Everton today Jelavic gave a different version of events.
He said: “My dream was to play in the English Premier League but I never forced my transfer.
“I spoke with Ally McCoist and said if the president wants me to stay I’ll stay and if they need money and want me to leave I’ll leave – the club decided.
“It is a difficult situation for them I know and I heard inside information about them having problems.
“It is still my team and my friends are there and I am worried about the situation but I think they will find a solution because they are a big institution.
“I never had a piece of paper in my hand telling Rangers I wanted to leave.
“I still had two and a half years left on my contract so if the club had told me to stay I would have respected that.
“I never said I was desperate to leave. Two clubs made an agreement and that is it. What can I do? Nothing.
“Why am I the bad guy? I did my job for Rangers, winning two major trophies and scoring many goals.
“I never met Craig Whyte – I have never even spoken with him.”
Earlier this week in an open letter to the Rangers support Whyte explaid: “The reality of Jelavic’s departure is two-fold. One, the player wanted to leave and there is no point in trying to keep a player who no longer wants to be at Ibrox.
“Two, the Club is simply not in a financial position to turn down offers for players which give the Club a good return on its original investment.”
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Wouldn’t trust a word that Craig Whytemare says. Starting to think he found that pound to buy them in the street!
“president” Craig the conman.
Both are saying the same thing.
If you add it up, considering the outstanding money to Rapid, I’d be surperised if they made £500k from the transfer.
What ever happened to the offer from the unknown agent from an unknown club playing in an unknown league….no one knows!
Great point Gerry, I was just thinking the same thing. “Good return for our investment”? That’ll be the day!
He was sold for approximately the same as they paid for him, the highest earner at Ibrox, and booted out the door because he was to expensive. That is simple, the delay to sell him was planned.
Whyte did not want to be seen failing to sign a replacement after he’d gone. He decided instead to make it look like he had no choice. The real problem is Whyte realized he was conned and paid way over the odds for Rangers to begin with.
One quid!! Not exactly value for the money, was it?
Will Sir David Murray lose his knighthood for tax evasion and fraud