JERMAIN DEFOE is determined to remain at Ibrox and ‘achieve something special’ with Rangers next term.
The striker joined Steven Gerrard’s side on loan from Bournemouth in January but the Light Blues will end the campaign empty-handed.
A deal is in place for Defoe to stay with Rangers for next season and the 36-year-old has no desire to leave.
Defoe said: “I want to stay here, for sure. I want a full season to try and achieve something special here.
“Bournemouth can call me back in the summer and again in January, but for me I am focused on being here and scoring goals for Rangers. I want to help the team, it’s as simple as that.
“So far it’s been great, there have been ups and downs, but that’s football. I believe next season we can really kick on and achieve something. For me, it’s been good.
“I’ve had the opportunity to play against teams I have never played before – and to play against the top teams like Celtic and the others.
“It was important for me to have this experience and I don’t think we are too far off. I don’t think we are too far off at all. If you look at the Celtic game — and I know it’s gone – but how we controlled part of the game with 10 men.
“Credit to the boys and that should give us confidence going into next season. So I want to be a part of that.”
Defeat at Parkhead last weekend ended Rangers’ faint hopes of a late bid for the top flight title this term.
But Defoe enjoyed his first taste of the Old Firm occasion.
He said: “It was a good experience, obviously it would have been better if we had won the game.
“When I first signed I bumped in to Graeme Souness and he said that it is the best derby that he had every played in. It’s a special game and as players, those are the games that you want to play in. It’s a massive game and the atmosphere is electric.
“It would have been better if we had won the game. I thought that we played well to be honest and we probably played better when we went down to ten men as we controlled the game. Like the manager said, it’s gone now. It was a good experience for me being my first one and I’m looking forward to the next one now.”
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