Queen of the South legend Derek Lyle has claimed that he offered to play for Rangers for free when the Gers were in the lower divisions of the SPFL – but it “wasn’t to be” for the veteran as the Ally McCoist turned to Kenny Miller and Kris Boyd instead.
Lyle is a lifelong Rangers fan and would have loved to have played for the Gers and told his agent to offer himself to the club after being kicked out of of the SPL.
“I actually asked my agent to ask McCoist when they went down. I would play for nothing, because I was obviously a Rangers man and I would have loved to have played for them,” Lyle told the Football Daft podcast.
“Just to go there and play. I said I’d play for nothing, and I know that when they’d come up the leagues they would have been looking for a wee bit better quality going into the SPL, obviously trying to win championships and leagues.
“It wasn’t to be, they brought the likes of Kenny Miller and Kris Boyd and that in – good players, so it just wasn’t to be for me.”
The 39-year-old is still playing for Peterhead today and was rewarded by QotS with a testimonial against a Light Blues legends side featuring the likes of Barry Ferguson and Peter Lovenkrands in 2017.
During his time in Dumfries, Lyle was a nuisance against the Gers, scoring four times against them in the Championship.