Mikey Moore has admitted that winning a league title and securing Champions League football could entice him back to Rangers next season.
Moore is on a season-long loan from Tottenham Hotspur and initial talks have already been held between both clubs with regards to a possible return to Ibrox.
Rangers boss Danny Rohl has made no secret of his desire to keep the 18-year-old winger beyond the end of the current campaign.
Much will depend on Tottenham’s situation in the Premier League and whether they can avoid relegation to the Championship. But Moore is not ruling out the possibility of returning to Rangers and extending his loan agreement into a second season.
Rangers could secure automatic entry into the Champions League if they win the title, along with results in other European leagues falling in their favour with regards to the co-efficient.
Asked if that could sway his decision, he said: ‘Yes, the Champions League is a competition that I’ve wanted to play in since I was a little kid watching it. So, obviously, European football is a massive factor and I want to play in the massive games.
Winger Mikey Moore could be persuaded to return to Ibrox after a season on loan from Spurs
Moore was in the Rangers team that crashed to a costly defeat by Motherwell at the weekend
‘If the club’s competing on those levels and we’re going to go there, we’re going to give it a real good go as well. We need to get there first. But we need to go give it a real good go.
‘So, it could be a factor. But it’s honestly not all in my hands. I need to speak to people back home.
‘I’m completely honest with everyone about the way my future is. I’ve enjoyed every second of my time here, but it [the decision on my future] is not completely done.
‘Honestly, it’s not in my hands. I’ll speak to people in the summer. They [Tottenham] have left me so far, but I’ll speak to people in the summer.
‘Obviously I’ve had conversations with the gaffer [Rohl] and obviously he said he wants me back. But it has to be right for me, it has to be right for the club, and we have to see what position Tottenham are in and the way everything works out.’
Moore revealed that Spurs were keen to terminate his loan with Rangers earlier in the season given the turbulence around Ibrox.
Especially given the disastrous start to the campaign under Russell Martin, the winger could easily have been swallowed up as a young player.
‘I’m so grateful to the fans,’ continued Moore, who has been nominated for the PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year.
‘I think we’ve got a good connection now where I love them and they like me a little bit.
‘I think that’s a credit to them for sticking with me because, at the start of the year, it was looking like I was going to rent a flat back out in London somewhere.
‘So, I’m grateful to them. Yeah, I’d had conversations [with Tottenham]. I think people back at Tottenham probably wanted me to come back home. I think it was around October time. But I said: “I’ve got two, three months left until the January window and I’m going to do my very best to change it”.
‘I never wanted it to be that way [cut short the loan]. And, obviously, a new gaffer come in and he helped me. His arrival was a big boost for me. I’m really enjoying it.’
Rangers crashed to a costly defeat at home to Motherwell at the weekend and now trail Hearts by four points in the title race.
Moore is among those shortlisted for the PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year award
They will travel to Tynecastle next Monday in what is now surely a must-win fixture, but Moore insists it is too early for them to be written off.
‘Sunday was obviously really disappointing,’ he added. ‘We have to win the last four to even give ourselves a chance.
‘For me, it’s just about going out there with a mentality of “I’m going to be brave today and be one of the ones to affect the game”.
‘I think people, if they were to write us off now, they would have written us off six months ago, three months ago. We’ve been written off a few times.
‘So, I know it was disappointing on Sunday, I understand it. I understand the way people react to it. But there’s four games and if we win all four, we put ourselves in more than a good enough position to hopefully win the league.
‘That would give us all a massive lift because obviously we’re looking above us at the top of the league. So, the more games we can win, especially if we win at Hearts, it gives us a bit of a confidence boost and a lift that we can take into the final three games of the season.’
