Rangers youngster Danny Wilson furious at contract pressure

DANNY Wilson has hit out at the pressure being put on him to sign a new contract at Rangers.

• Steven Davis, Walter Smith and Danny Wilson display their awards on a glittering night of success for Glasgow Rangers

The 18-year-old defender has one season left on his existing deal and insists it is wrong to expect him to rush into committing his future to the club.

Wilson, who has been linked with summer moves to Liverpool and Tottenham, is fed up with other people giving their opinions on the decisions he should make. And he claims more attention should be paid to the Rangers players whose contracts expire at the end of this season, rather than next.

"A lot of people have spoken about it, but they've done a lot of talking for me rather than actually asking me what my opinion is," said Wilson, who saw his stock rise further last night when he was named PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year.

"My opinion is I've got a year left here. I don't think it's fair that a lot of people are saying that I should be the one signing the contract.

"There are six players out of contract at the end of the season; they should take priority. There's a summer coming up; who knows what'll happen? Hopefully, everything will get sorted then. Things take time and I'm not going to rush into anything. Nobody should be too worried."

Wilson, who helped Rangers win the Clydesdale Bank Premier League and Co-operative Insurance Cup in his first full season in the senior side, added: "People are doing a lot of talking. They're linking me here there and everywhere but, at the end of the day, I just want to play football and whatever happens happens. I'm not too worried, I'm not going to get myself in a state about it.

"I'm in a good position, I've got good people to learn from here, and I'll just take it as it comes."

Meanwhile, Walter Smith insists he has no problem being dubbed "The Godfather" of Scottish football after completing a clean sweep of the nation's Manager of the Year awards.

The Rangers manager picked up the PFA Scotland prize at their annual dinner in Glasgow last night, adding to the Scottish Football Writers' Association and Clydesdale Bank Premier League gongs he had already collected.

The Ibrox club were also able to celebrate a clean sweep of awards, with Steven Davis named Player of the Year while Madjid Bougherra picked up the Goal of the Season prize.

Smith was recently hailed as "The Godfather" of all the managers in Scotland by Dundee United counterpart Peter Houston, and the 62-year-old welcomes the comparison.

"When you start out, you don't always expect to be still in a job when you're into your sixties, especially our job," he said. "I was 27 when I first went into coaching. Hitting 62, when somebody says something like that, I take it as a nice compliment."

Houston's sentiments appeared to be supported by his fellow managers, who chose Smith as winner of the PFA award for the first time.

"It's nice that other managers vote for you in this one," said Smith, revealing he voted for his former player, St Johnstone manager Derek McInnes, who was nominated along with Derek Adams. "I think he's done an exceptional job at St Johnstone, just coming into the division. It's good to see somebody I had as a player come on."

Paying tribute to his "fantastic" staff, Smith said: "You need a wee bit of inspiration and a wee bit of prompting and they've supplied me with that over the last three years."

He also hailed midfielder Davis as a worthy winner of the player prize, saying the Northern Ireland international, who was selected ahead of team-mates David Weir and Kris Boyd, as well as Dundee United captain Andy Webster, had been "an outstanding player for us this season".

"I ask him to play slightly out of position and he does so without complaining. He's a quiet lad but he's got a great deal of determination about him."

Smith has yet to decide whether to stay on at Ibrox next season but admits success continues to motivate him. He said: "If you were taking a team that was coming from one division to another division and going up and you were seen to be doing a good job, you could keep going. I don't think that there's many that could keep going into their sixties if you're fighting against relegation every season."