Maurice Edu gains respite from club woes before facing Ibrox mates

By LISA GRAY
Published on 25/05/2012 03:47

MAURICE Edu has welcomed the prospect of some much-needed respite from Rangers’ problems after enduring a difficult end to the season.

The Ibrox midfielder is back in his native United States ahead of this weekend’s friendly against Scotland and relishing the opportunity to focus on country instead of club for a while. Rangers were plunged into turmoil when they were forced to call in the administrators in February and a huge amount of uncertainty still hangs over the club’s future.

But, in Florida, Edu said: “It’s good to get back among this group of guys. The things that are going on at Rangers will hopefully sort themselves out pretty soon. It’s kind of like a little escape from the situation right now. I can just turn my attention to this and try to focus on doing well at camp and doing well in these games.

“It’s your livelihood at stake and all the uncertainty is on your mind a little bit but I’m no different from the rest of the guys, I just try to focus on playing. That’s what we love to do, that’s what we get paid to do as well. Not only is it our passion but it’s also our job so we take it as seriously as possible.”

Rangers players agreed to wage cuts of up to 75 per cent in March in a bid to prevent widespread redundancies but are set to revert back to their original contracts within days.

On his own future, Edu – who was the subject of a failed bid from Sochaux in January – said: “To be honest, I haven’t given it much thought. Things have happened pretty quickly from the last game there to coming into camp here. Now my mind has just been focused on trying to do well here.

“There are 27 guys in camp and they are going to cut it down to 23 or 24 so everyone is focused on doing well for themselves and trying to be among that final group of guys.

“Initially when everything started happening at Rangers, it drew some attention here. I haven’t been paying attention to the newspapers and things like that lately, I’ve just been trying to keep my head down.”

As well as Edu, Carlos Bocanegra is also in the USA squad and both are now relishing the prospect of coming up against team-mates Allan McGregor, Steven Whittaker and Lee Wallace in Saturday’s clash in Jacksonville. Edu said: “It will be good. Before we left, we had a bit of banter and we have been texting since we have been out here. It will definitely be a good game. I know they are looking forward to it and I’m looking forward to it and Carlos is looking forward to it as well. Hopefully we will come out on top and go back with some bragging rights.”

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