GRAEME MURTY has confessed his one regret over Billy Gilmour's time at Rangers - not handing him a first-team debut.
The former Ibrox caretakers boss and youth academy guru had been close to giving Gilmour his first minutes as just a 15-year-old.
But he decided against throwing the youngster into the squad for a Scottish Cup clash with Hamilton in 2017 as he named an experience substitutes bench.
Rangers overran Hamilton claiming a 6-0 win and despite his delight at the result, Murty looks back at the game as one where Gilmour should've played a part.
Instead Gilmour would leave Rangers months later to join Chelsea without playing any first-team football for the club.
Explaining the scenario, Murty told the Scottish Sun: “I should have played Billy.
“It was a Cup game — the only time we could have played him at 15. I still regret it because he deserved to play and the thing that held him back from the pitch was me.
“I didn’t put him on the bench. I actually talked myself into protecting the club and making sure we got through, instead of enhancing this kid and getting him on the pitch.
“It’s really important at Rangers you get to the next round, so you go through every potential scenario in the game — apart from the one that came up.
“It was the only time I operated from thinking, ‘What happens if we don’t win this one? I need to have a senior member on the bench. How can I shoehorn Billy in?’
“But we ended up winning 6-0. And I could’ve been the manager who played the youngest player in Rangers history in Billy.”
While Murty and club officials were disappointed to lose Gilmour there was no sour feeling from his move to Premier League giants Chelsea.
But Murty is hopeful someday in the future Gilmour will pull on a Rangers shirt.
He added: “I’d love to see him back in a Rangers jersey and playing for the club. I’d hope that he’d really enjoy that experience. I would’ve loved to have seen it back then. But I understand why he went. We tried loads of stuff to get him to stay."
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