Martyn Waghorn has opened up on his years at Rangers, and the headline is regret rather than pride.
The Martyn Waghorn Rangers fans remember fondly helped drag the club out of the Championship and back into the Premiership.
Even so, his lasting feeling now is that it all ended too soon.
Speaking to the Daily Record, Waghorn said his main frustration is simple. He wishes he had stayed at Ibrox for longer, and had more to show for it by the time he left.
What Waghorn’s Rangers spell actually delivered
Waghorn signed for Rangers at a time when getting back into the top flight was the only target that mattered.
He played his part in reaching that goal, and in winning the Championship title along the way.
For a striker who turned out for 13 different clubs across his career, that spell still stands out to him.
“It was obviously huge (playing for Rangers). Just one, first and foremost, to play for the club, to be associated, to help get the club back to the Premiership, win a championship. I wish I could have stayed there longer, had a bit more success there,” Waghorn said.
That line sums up the contradiction at the heart of his time at Rangers. He achieved what he set out to do, yet he still felt he left before he was finished. As he put it elsewhere in the same interview, “It’s a huge privilege every time I put the strip on.”
The move away from Ibrox came down to simple competition for places. Pedro Caixinha took over as manager and brought in new options up front, leaving Waghorn further down the pecking order than he wanted to be.
“It was just Pedro came in, he brought in a few forward players. Dalcio, Eduardo, Buffalo (Alfredo Morelos) came in.
“So there were numbers ahead of us, I just had to be patient and there was an option to leave and there was no guarantee of game time,” Waghorn explained.
Waghorn has never claimed Caixinha’s arrival alone ended his Rangers career. It is simply how he remembers the chain of events that led him to move on.
Waghorn reflects on Rangers career
Martyn Waghorn’s career took him to 13 clubs across almost two decades in the professional game. That spread puts his time at Rangers into context. It was a short stop on a long journey, but one that still stands out in his own words.
Now 36, Waghorn confirmed in the interview that he has already stepped away from playing. “Yeah, I retired about 18 months or so ago. I just thought it was my time and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve done and just happy to move on,” he said.
Retirement has not stopped him pulling on a Rangers shirt from time to time. He scored five goals in a 7-1 win over Celtic at a Tennents Sixes event at Braehead on Saturday, proof that his finishing touch has not gone anywhere.
“Obviously as a striker you want to score goals and against these lot you want to do the best you can and win,” Waghorn said afterwards.
Small-sided exhibition football is a world away from a title race or a relegation fight, but beating Celtic still mattered to him. That competitive streak clearly has not faded with age.
Unfortunately, Rangers lost out to Celtic in the Sixes final on Sunday.
What his words mean for Rangers now
The wider message in Waghorn’s interview is about standards. He is clear that whoever wears the shirt now, the demands at Ibrox do not change.
“Obviously the size of the club speaks for itself. We’ve got to be competing, we have to be challenging for trophies and there’s no getting away from that fact,” he said.
That line will resonate with anyone who has read our standards-setters feature on what it takes to play for Rangers under pressure.
Waghorn still follows the club closely from a distance. “I try and get up as much as I can. Obviously we’ve had a really positive couple of results the last few weeks,” he said, a nod to Rangers’ recent run against Celtic under new boss Derek McInnes.
Waghorn also admitted a lingering curiosity about where he would fit into the current side. “Obviously, naturally, you’ve always got an eye on a position you’re familiar with doing and it would just be nice to see how I’d fit into the team now,” he said.
It is a natural thought for any former forward, and it touches on ideas raised in the Ibrox method piece on how the current attack is asked to play. Waghorn’s full comments appear in the original interview carried by the Record.
For supporters, his reflections double as a reminder of a Martyn Waghorn Rangers chapter that briefly mattered a great deal and ended sooner than he wanted.
His one regret, by his own admission, is that it did not last longer.
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