Declan John hopes Rangers move can revive career

Declan John believes his move to Rangers can revitalise a career which he admits has stalled in recent years.

Declan John in action for Cardiff City, the club he has left for a year on loan at Rangers in the hope of first-team football. Picture: Nick Potts/PA

The Welsh international, who operates at left-back or wing-back, became the Ibrox club’s 11th signing of the summer transfer window when he joined them from Cardiff City on a season-long loan yesterday.

John made his first-team breakthrough at the Welsh club as a teenager during the 2013-14 campaign in the Premier League. But he has struggled to hold down a regular place in the Cardiff side since then, with previous loan moves to Barnsley and Chesterfield.

The 22-year-old, who was informed by current Cardiff manager Neil Warnock that he will not feature in his plans this season, jumped at the opportunity to make his latest temporary move to Scottish football.

“I went into the Premier League at the age of 18, and you don’t really expect to get the call-up for that, and our first game was against West Ham which was massive for me,” said John.

“Then, I managed to do well and stay in the team for more or less the rest of that season. There were different managers that came in, so my career I think has stalled a little at the minute, but hopefully I can kick on from here. And what better team to do that at than Rangers? This is such a massive club, and as soon as I heard Rangers were in for me, it was a ‘yes’ straight away.

“I don’t think I was playing enough games (at Cardiff) and getting the games I needed. But Rangers are such a massive club, and coming up here and hopefully doing that will hopefully be good for me.

“I’m 22, and I need to go out and play games at this stage. I’ve not played so many games in the last year or two, so to come up here and do that is only going to be good for me.”

John will join Pedro Caixinha’s squad for training today as he looks to get up to speed in time for a possible debut against Dundee at Ibrox on 9 September.

“I haven’t really played that much football (this season),” he told Rangers TV. “There was pre-season and many games, but they were just for fitness, so for me to get back into the footballing world and to do it with such a massive club is going to be great for me.

“Perhaps it’s maybe worked out in a better way. We haven’t got a game this Saturday, so I will have a full week of training and getting used to the new surroundings and to the boys.

“Football is crazy, especially around the last few days of the transfer window, but, as I said, as soon as I heard Rangers were in it was a ‘yes’ straight away.

“It has been a bit of a mad few days. I got the phone call on Tuesday night, had to fly up on the Wednesday and finally got it all sorted today (Thursday).

“It (Ibrox) is amazing. I’ve never seen a stadium which looks so compact and it’s just brilliant. When you’re getting 50,000 people and the stadium is a sell-out, you can only be happy with that.

“It’s going to be an amazing time for me and I’m sure I will enjoy it. I’ve only really seen Rangers on TV and I know there is a massive derby up here, so I’m looking forward to hopefully playing in those sorts of games.”