CONNOR GOLDSON heard the rumours and read the comments. Through it all, he knew it would be good to talk.
The Englishman kept his counsel and trusted his inner circle as those on the outside speculated over his position and questioned his intentions during the final months of his Rangers contract. They were, crucially, not the last months of his Rangers career.
The narrative was set that Goldson would leave Glasgow after four years, return south of the border to be closer to his family and pocket a Premier League payday. If he had done just that, nobody could have begrudged him that decision.
As others discussed his future, Goldson focused on his football. After the heartache of Seville, there was the high at Hampden before he embarked on a well-earned and much-needed summer break with his wife and children.
Once he sat down, talked it through and thought it out, the decision became an easy one. A new contract was signed in early June and Goldson will spend the next four years at a club that has become home from home and that holds a special place in his heart.
“I can’t say I ever had intentions of leaving because I never spoke to anyone,” Goldson said. “It was a decision for the whole family because my wife is up here, on her own, with two kids.
“Our family is four, five hours away. I know some people don’t think that’s a big thing but it is.
“But when we went away and we actually spoke about it we said we’re happy here.
“My wife is starting to find her feet again after Covid, she’s getting out and making friends. Our boys are in a routine of going to nursery.
“I always said I was happy here, but I wanted to be appreciated.
“In the end the club and that happened within three days of me being on holiday.
“I didn’t actually speak to Rangers during the season. It came out in the press a few times that I had rejected contracts and I never did.
“There was one contract offered to me after we won the league. It got negotiated, but then we let football do that talking, especially during the back end of last season when we had so many important matches.
“So the whole thing about me rejecting contracts wasn’t true at all.”
The news that Goldson had put pen-to-paper came out of the blue but it was a moment to savour for a support who had feared the worst and had started to plan for life after a hugely influential figure on and off the park at Ibrox.
An Instagram post made the 29-year-old’s position perfectly clear as he addressed the rumours and the negativity, his family and his dreams and his hopes for the future with Rangers.
Goldson has spent this week with Van Bronckhorst’s squad at their training base in Portugal. It was time for him to have his say.
“That’s why when I ended up signing I put up a post on social media saying there had been so much spoken about me that was wrong,” Goldson added.
“I didn’t speak at the time, I didn’t do any interviews and I think a lot of the fans took that to mean that I wanted to leave the football club. I never did.
“When the season started I came off social media, but you still see these things because your family and friends send you articles.
“The day I signed my contract at Rangers there was one report that morning which said I was already down the road signing for Nottingham Forest.
“It sums it all up. It’s frustrating because you see all that and some fans actually take that to be the truth.”
Those same supporters who questioned or criticised Goldson will now back him once again as he aims to inspire Rangers to domestic silverware and European success this term.
The trip to Portugal and friendly fixture with Sunderland on Saturday evening have allowed Rangers to look forward, to attempt to banish the memories of that agonising defeat just a couple of hours up the road.
Some 100,000 fans made the trip to Seville and saw Rangers return empty handed but Goldson, a stalwart of the rise and rise over the last four seasons, has reasons to be cheerful and confident going forward.
“It didn’t surprise me,” Goldson said of the travelling support that dared to dream of European glory. “I expected it.
"Even before the final, in the games against Dortmund and Leipzig, outside our hotel in Braga, the scenes were incredible. But you actually come to expect it.
"My family and friends were all there. For them to walk around and take all that in made for a very special few days.
“We didn’t win it, which was unfortunate. But it was an occasion and a journey that will live with me forever.
“And it also fuels the desire to go one better and lift silverware this season.
“We deserved the Scottish Cup as a group, but you can never stand still.
“Have we won enough over the four years I have been here? Probably not.
“But at the same time it’s been a journey. It’s been about growing this football club to where we are now.
“I know Rangers fans expect to win every single year but to be honest with you, the team I walked into four years ago was nowhere near to winning anything. Now, four years later, we are competing for everything.
“I know we didn’t win the league and that was disappointing. But now Rangers can start to look forward and say we are in a position to compete and win things.
“Four years ago that squad I walked into, without being disrespectful, wasn’t capable of doing it.”
