SCOTLAND striker Oliver McBurnie last night revealed he will hold talks about his future with his agent this week – and admitted he would seriously consider a move to his boyhood heroes Rangers this summer.
McBurnie has one year left on his contract at Swansea City, but is unsure if he will feature because the Liberty Stadium club are without a manager after being relegated from the Premier League last season.
The player, who turned 22 today, has been repeatedly linked with the Ibrox club and there was interest in taking him to Glasgow during the January transfer window, but he ended up moving to Barnsley on loan.
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The Leeds-born forward has made no secret of his love for Rangers and would love the opportunity to help Liverpool and England great Steven Gerrard make a success of his first job in management if he is not going to be involved at Swansea.
“I have one year left at Swansea but there is obviously no manager left at Swansea,” he said. “It is kind of up in the air at the minute.
“I was getting this (the Scotland tour of Peru and Mexico) out of the way. When I get back I will go down and speak to the relevant people and see what happens.
“I think there are talks with Swansea. I think they are in talks with my agent. But my agent will not speak to me until I get back and I sit down with him. I haven’t spoken to my agent since pretty much the end of the season.”
Asked about being constantly tipped to join Rangers in the media, he said: “Tell me about it! You know what football is like with the amount of speculation. But my tweeting probably doesn’t help.
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“Basically, I am a Rangers fan. I said the other day that whatever happens I want Steven Gerrard to go there and I want him to do well as he can. I want Rangers to get back where they belong. Whether that’s with me there or not it is what it is. I just want them to get back to where they should be.
“But I’ve always said all my life that I would love to play for Rangers. Whether it’s now or not it is what it is. I don’t think it was as close as everyone was saying in January. I had three options at the end I was definitely able to go to and Rangers were not one of the three.”
McBurnie played for Scotland against Peru last Tuesday night and Mexico on Saturday and is keen to keep playing regular competitive football so he can remain involved with the national side next season.
“I want to play first team football, I want to play at the highest level possible and I want to play every week,” he said.
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“My loan spell at Barnsley was my first taste of playing at a good level week in and week out and I really enjoyed it. I scored nine in 16 games and I got player of the season there.
“I’ve had that sniff of it now and I don’t want to go back to being a bit-part player. I want to be somewhere I can play every week and be the main man.
“Now that I have played for Scotland it is especially important. But even after my first start against Costa Rica I wanted to play every game. I want to be the first choice. It’s ambitious, but that’s what I want to do. I want to be Scotland’s No.9 one day and games like this will help me get there.”
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