Tottenham starlet Mikey Moore has revealed why he did not return to Rangers on loan this season after enjoying success at the Scottish club last term.
Moore was one of the best attacking players on show in the Scottish top-flight last season, with the Tottenham man picking up the SPL Young Player of the Year award.
The 19-year-old scored seven times and registered four assists for the club in 47 appearances, tormenting defences with his dribbling and one-v-one ability.
However, so far, the youngster has not been able to translate those performances to the Bundesliga, with the teenager having just one assist and no goals to his name in nine appearances for Koln.
In fact, reports from Germany indicate that Koln are not too pleased with how Moore has performed so far this term, with the German club’s decision-makers feeling he only shows his talent in flashes.
Tottenham youngster Mikey Moore reveals managerial change ended Rangers return desire
The one thing that will give Tottenham hope is that the youngster had a similarly tough start to his time in Scotland last season.
Moore only started coming into his own after Russel Martin was replaced at the helm of the Gers by Danny Rohl, who brought the best out of the Spurs academy graduate.
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The young attacker has now been speaking to the Scottish media about his decision not to return to Rangers, revealing that the sacking of Rohl ended his interest in returning to Ibrox.
Moore told The Daily Record: “We spoke throughout the year and even at the end of the season before we finished, there were talks with Rangers. I was speaking with my agent, and he was up at Ibrox speaking with the owner and stuff. But to be honest, it kind of stopped when Danny left.
“I think once he’d gone, it didn’t make as much sense for me. As much as I loved my time, I don’t think it made as much sense for me to go back and start again afresh, especially at this point in my career when I just thought I needed to take another jump now. I needed to take another step, to push on to try and challenge myself.
“I did well in Glasgow, so it was about trying to tick off another box and do something else. I really enjoyed playing under Danny, so when he left, that was when I started leaning more towards going out to Bundesliga or another team. Obviously that’s what ended up happening, and I’m happy that I’m here now, but obviously I miss being over there all the time.”
Asked if new Rangers boss Derek McInnes had made any attempts to change his mind, Moore said: “I didn’t speak to him personally. I’m not sure if there were chats with my agent and things like that. I’m not sure what was happening behind the scenes, but no, I never spoke to Derek.”
Moore admits he has unfinished business in Glasgow
The teenager and his Rangers teammates suffered heartbreak towards the end of the campaign as they lost four of their last five league fixtures to hand the title to their fierce rivals, Celtic.
Mikey Moore confessed that he left a part of his heart at Ibrox and the Tottenham starlet would like an opportunity to return to the club in the future to win silverware.
When asked if he feels he has unfinished business at the Scottish club, the Tottenham youngster said: “100 per cent. The connection I built there in Glasgow and the love I now have for the club means that for me, as long as I’m in a good place and I feel I can help the club, it’s a dream of mine to go back there at some point.
“I loved living there, I loved the club so I do feel like I do want to go back at some point and help the team to win again. Obviously I never got to do it myself, and honestly I hope that it happens this year but at some point I’d like to experience that myself.
“Is that my big Rangers regret, not getting to lift a trophy? Yeah, 100 per cent. When I look back at it, we were in such a good position to do it. We’d come off the Falkirk game before the split and had gone away to Spain for a few days for some really good training.
“I got some good rest because I was carrying a bit of an injury at the time, then we come back from the Motherwell game. We didn’t start well and found ourselves behind. But we got it back to 2-2 and I thought we were going to win this game and I think from there we could have really pushed on. But obviously it wasn’t meant to be. I would have loved to have lifted the trophy so that’s something I do, obviously regret, I can’t do anything about it now but hopefully at some point I can put it right.”