Source: FOOTYMAD
Fancy A Little Loan?
It must be hard to watch from the sidelines. Andrew Little has seriously considered walking away from Rangers for the last two and half years in order to kick-start his career with the Ibrox club. The Northern Ireland international is currently recovering from two separate hip operations and, while Walter Smith used him just as part of the squad, would love to be a regular part of the first team. Little has looked into the possibility of a loan deal to get a regular run of games and will discuss this option with manager Ally McCoist when he has fully recovered. Little said: "My mind is more on getting fit, maybe a month down the road I will re-evaluate and maybe have a word with the manager and see what his plans are. If I have a place here then great but I'm more than happy to go out on loan. I have been keen to go out on loan for the last two and half years. I feel as if I need 30 to 40 games a season. At the same time I want to play for Rangers and I want to play here. So if my chance comes I want to be here to take it. But if the manager reckons the best thing for me is to go out on loan and get 30 games I'm more than happy to do that." Little admitted feeling he did not feel he was right to be around as his Ibrox team-mates celebrated a Co-operative Insurance Cup final win over Celtic and their third successive SPL title win. He said: "It is probably the hardest six or seven months I've had. Just watching the team being so successful is a good thing but you can't help feeling left out, you just want to be a part of it. But I am over all that now and everything is good now, I feel fit and stronger and better for it. I had two operations on my right and left hip, in January and March, so it has been a while recovering from that. The manager spoke to me on the first day and told me to come back when I'm ready, not too quickly and he wished me well. I have been with the physios during the pre-season. I hoped to be fully fit for pre-season but it didn't happen. But I'm nearly back fully fit. Hopefully I have two weeks to go before I am back with the squad." Little is still trying to find a settled position but he pointed to Ibrox utility player Steven Whittaker as evidence that his own versatility is a positive rather than a negative. Little said: "I came as a striker and hadn't played right back in my life but I feel comfortable. I played twice last season in the League Cup. In the first game I played 90 minutes at right back, in the second I played right midfield for half an hour and striker for half an hour. I haven't worked it out myself and the coaches haven't either but it's not really an issue. I look at Steven Whittaker who is someone I look up to and he has played nearly every position on the park. So it's not too much of a problem and with smaller squads that bit of versatility is definitely useful. Steven is a perfect example of that and the club wanted to hold on to him."
