Jelavic: I never forced my transfer from Rangers
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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