Rangers missed out on me, says Hartson

Celtic striker John Hartson claims Rangers made a costly blunder when they backed out of signing him on medical grounds over five years ago.

In August 2000, the Welshman was poised to join the then-champions in a double deal with Ronald de Boer, who did complete a £4.5m switch from Barcelona.

However, after a fee of around £6m had been agreed by the Ibrox club with Wimbledon, Hartson – who also saw moves to Tottenham and Charlton fall through – failed a medical due to a knee problem.

The Govan club subsequently forked out a Scottish transfer record fee of £12.5m on Tore Andre Flo who, despite a decent scoring record, struggled to live up to his hefty price tag.

Hartson moved to Coventry, ironically managed by Celtic’s current manager Gordon Strachan, before eventually signing for Martin O’Neill for £6m in 2001.

The Hoops striker, who recently joined an elite band of Celtic players to score over 100 goals for the Parkhead club, insists Rangers’ decision not to take a chance on him backfired spectacularly.

He said: “They signed De Boer who was injured for four or five weeks and six months after they turned me away they went and paid £13m or whatever it was for somebody else and you all know how well that guy did up here.

“I never really got an explanation. It was a case of ‘sorry, we are not going through with the deal’ and that was it.

“I’ve never missed one minute’s training or a game in my four and a half years at Celtic because of my knee which failed me on four medicals. You can work that out for yourself.

“I remember the doctors saying to me that if you scan most footballers’ knees you will see things.

“Some clubs are willing to take a chance, others are not so willing and obviously Celtic, Martin O’Neill and the doctors took a chance.

“To me it wasn’t a chance but, obviously, when you have failed four previous medicals there are going to be doubts in people’s minds.”

Hartson admits he was worried by his failure to get away from Wimbledon and praised Strachan for first taking a gamble on him at Coventry.

He said: “It had been a nightmare for me, to be honest. When you are failing medicals, you just wonder what’s going wrong.

“I could go out there, lash balls, volley balls, run, sprint, turn, jump, everything. My knee was absolutely brand new and I was thinking, ‘well why can’t I pass a medical?’.

“It wasn’t just Mickey Mouse medicals I was going for. I was going to Rangers for £6.5m, Tottenham for £7m, Charlton for £5.5m, but it was Gordon Strachan who helped me out when I eventually went to Coventry for £5m.

“I was there for six months, finished the season very well in the Premiership, although we went down, and that is when I had contact with Martin O’Neill about coming to Celtic.

“I could have been rubbish, a dud, and left after a year or even six months.

“I had been written off by a lot of people but it has been absolutely fantastic at Celtic.

“It’s been a million times better than I could have imagined.”