Lifelong Celtic fan Darren Fletcher makes Rangers confession

Lifelong Celtic fan Darren Fletcher’s confession about Rangers will certainly leave a large portion of the Hoops fans surprised.

It is no secret that Darren Fletcher grew up as a Celtic fan. And although he went on to captain the Scottish national team on a number of occasions and is on the naional football team roll of honour, he never played for a Scottish club during his illustrious career.

Fletcher spent 20 years combined at Manchester United, coming through their youth ranks to become an integral part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s legendary side. During his time at Old Trafford he made 342 appearances for the Red Devils, winning 13 trophies in the process of doing so. Later on he would go on to play for Stoke City and West Bromwich Albion, thereby spending his entire professional career down South. As a result, many would be led to believe that he never got to realize his lifelong dream of playing for the Hoops.

But as it turns out, the reality is a bit different. Speaking to BBC Sportsound, the former Manchester United midfielder revealed that if he had signed for a Scottish side during his career, he was likely to pick the Rangers over Celtic. As reported by the Daily Record, Fletcher said:

"“To tell you the truth, I grew up a Celtic fan but I probably spent more time playing with Rangers and loved being around the Rangers youth set up.“More than likely if I had signed for a Scottish club I would have signed for Rangers, believe it or not.“If it came to it I would say I’m a Celtic fan, I’m not hiding behind that, that’s there to be seen but at the same time I’m not everything against Rangers.“Rangers doing well in Europe, I love seeing it. I loved their Europa League run this year. I’ve been in England for so long I’m probably more of a Manchester United fan than anything.”"

It is hard not to see why many Celtic fans would be blown away by Fletcher’s admission. After all, many of them would probably give up anything in the world just for the chance to play for the club once. As a result, it is clearly shocking to hear a childhood fan give up that opportunity to go on and play for the cross-city rivals.

Of course, this is a completely hypothetical situation and at 36 years of age, it is highly unlikely that Fletcher will ever get the opportunity to make that choice. But even then, it is hard not to feel a bit let down.