Former Rangers centre-back Lorenzo Amoruso has confirmed he held talks with both Sunderland and West Ham United druing his time at Ibrox, but could not reach an agreement with either.
The Italian fell out with then Rangers boss Dick Advocaat, who had informed him he was not happy with the way he was playing and felt he needed to take the captain's armband off him; Barry Ferguson was made skipper.
Amoruso admits his first instinct after his disagreement with Advocaat was to find a way out of Ibrox and he held discussions with English clubs Sunderland and West Ham.
With no agreement reached though, Amoruso stayed in Glasgow and eventually found favour under new Gers boss Alex McLeish; Advocaat resigned as Rangers manager in 2001 and then had a stint as general manager.
He told Rangers' official site: "It was really hard at the start when the new manager came in. He wanted some really strict discipline and that was good to begin with, but after a year or two the players got a bit fed-up about it as we were treated like kids.
"He was using the stick all the time and some can react well to that, others can’t. He was never ready to compromise his attitude, and one day I went to his office to sort the problems between me and him.
"He told me he didn’t like the way I had been playing or the way I had been talking and that he should change the captaincy", Amoruso explained.
"It was a personal attack, and I wasn’t happy. I said to him ‘if you think I’m the scapegoat then do it, no problem. But if you think I’m the main problem, leave me out of the team.
"He never did that and that’s why I think it was a personal attack on me. He wasn’t happy with the way I was talking to the players and the way I was trying to get him to talk to the whole team."
Explaining the talks with Sunderland and West Ham, the Italian added: "It hurt me a lot and my first instinct was to stop playing for Rangers. I got on to my agent and told him ‘get me out of here, I can’t work with this man.’
"That wasn’t the case though. I had talks with Sunderland and West Ham, but there was no agreement between me and them or the two clubs.
"Eventually I stayed but I didn’t want to stay. Not because of Rangers, but because of Advocaat."
Amoruso enjoyed huge success at Rangers, winning three Scottish league titles, three Scottish Cups and three Scottish League Cups, with domestic trebles recorded in the 1998/99 and 2002/03 seasons.
He joined Blackburn Rovers in the summer of 2003.
