Scott Arfield has reflected on his time at Rangers insisting that he still has regrets that he did not win more trophies during his time at the club.
The midfielder was a fan favourite at Ibrox, but he departed the club in the summer upon the expiry of his contract.
Arfield was signed by Steven Gerrard in 2018 and he went on to have a hugely successful spell in Govan, where he won the Premiership title during the 20/21 season.
There was also a Europa League final during his time with Rangers, but Arfield just wishes he had won more.
“There is immense pride in representing the club, moments I’ll never forget”, he told The Athletic. “But there are huge regrets that there were so many trophies we didn’t win.
“You can’t pass the blame. We were a strong team. I speak to fans and ex-players who say our Europa League final team (they lost in the final to Frankfurt in 2022) was better than the 2008 UEFA Cup final team, but that means nothing.
“We did well to get to the Champions League but we didn’t deal with the realisation of how good these players are and let it manifest into the league campaign. We were getting heavily beaten and then trying to get the levels up again on a Saturday, it was probably a hangover from that.
“Gio was tactically amazing in those Europa games. We usually saw it the day before. He studied opponents meticulously and whatever things he said would happen, did. If we did win that European final, then his (Gio’s) Rangers career could have been so much different.”
Arfield is now playing his football in the MLS with FC Charlotte and in recent weeks he rubbed shoulders with Lionel Messi in a match against Inter Miami.
He added: “I tried to tackle him and he made me cuddle my team-mate — there’s context to that. I’d been running about trying to get a touch and he had been standing still.
“He just waits in pockets and then when he gets the ball, he can manipulate it at full speed. He can completely switch it on from 0 to 100. Playing against Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba was incredible. Messi was sublime, Busquets phenomenal. Our game plan was to stop Busquets getting it as he averages the most passes to Messi, but he’s that intelligent he takes you into areas and opens it up for someone else.”
