ANDY’S DAYS IN AZERBAIJAN WERE NUMBERED
But Halliday admits he was caught out by the small print during his Azerbaijan loan hell...
We were taken into a room and told we had to win or else we couldn’t play
AS team-talks go, this one was blunt and to the point. Having opted to move more than 2,000 miles east of Glasgow, Andy Halliday was about to discover his exile from first-team football had followed him all the way.
Mark it down as an experience. For Halliday, reflecting upon an unsuccessful five–month loan spell with Azerbaijani club Gabala feels easier from the comfort of Rangers’ winter training camp in Florida.
That move was a gamble he felt he had to take after Pedro Caixinha made it clear the midfielder would have no future at Ibrox under his management. The problem was that no one mentioned the small print. Only five of Gabala’s 12 foreign players were allowed to play in any domestic league match.
When the club’s Europa League ambitions came to an end at the third qualifying round, Halliday was left on the outside. Again.
‘The foreign players who played in the Europa League were pretty much pulled into a room before our second leg against Panathinaikos and told: “You need to win this game or else you won’t play”,’ he said.
‘But listen, there’s no excuse. It’s my mistake. I should have done enough research to know about the foreign player policy before I went. I found out five days into the loan. They signed five foreign boys that summer and we were all in the same boat.’
Defeat to the Greek giants meant Halliday made just seven appearances for Gabala — and three of those were in an unfamiliar centre-half role.
It left the 26-year-old with plentiful downtime. Much of which was spent trying to follow events back at the club he grew up supporting.
Caixinha’s dismissal in October created hope of a Rangers recall. That was subsequently confirmed when Graeme Murty landed the manager’s job until the end of the season.
‘My missus didn’t move over to Azerbaijan with me,’ said Halliday. ‘She has a full-time job that we didn’t want her to quit.
‘In my heart, I was hoping that I would only be there for six months. If not, then only a year. I still wanted to play while I was there, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t get to play as many games as I wanted. It was just about staying positive and trying to come back in January.
‘I was put in the situation of being a supporter again. I was trying to watch as many Rangers games as I possibly could. I actually didn’t get to watch as many as I would have liked because of the time difference.’
The ex-pat community offered help on that front, with Halliday warmly welcomed by a group of fellow Rangers fans.
‘They don’t have Sky over there and there is no BT Sport,’ added Halliday. ‘But a typical Scottish boy had a dodgy box! I couldn’t get one myself.
‘It is a great setup they have got there and they are a great bunch of guys.
‘One thing I want to say is that the club did everything they could to help me settle. I can look back and say I am thankful for the way Gabala tried to treat me while I was there. It just wasn’t where I wanted to be and I think they knew that pretty early.
‘The city was really nice. They have a project there that they are trying to build. There are a lot of promising things coming up. There’s a lot of money there from the oil.
‘And there’s actually a lot of Scottish people over there. I bumped into quite a lot of them.’
Halliday is similarly sanguine about the ruthless way in which he was treated by Caixinha. He refuses to point an accusing finger at the Portuguese coach, who is now making an unconvincing start to his tenure at Mexican outfit Cruz Azul.
‘I don’t want to speak too much about the previous manager,’ added Halliday. ‘I will take the moral high ground and wish him all the best at his new club. I am just happy that I am here now.
‘I never wanted to leave Rangers in the first place, but the circumstances at the time were that I couldn’t stay and he (Caixinha) would probably make it very difficult for me to stay.
‘My hope was just to go out and play games. I can look back and say I made the decision (to join Gabala) for the right reasons.
‘The team were in the Europa League at the time, and they made it to the group stage last year, so it was a chance for me.
‘I have never played in Europe before and I was hoping to do so for Rangers. I managed to get a few games. That is why I made the decision but, unfortunately, it didn’t work out.’
If anything, the experience has only deepened Halliday’s desire to grasp the lifeline offered by Murty.
‘I was certainly hoping that there would have been a chance to come back and, thankfully, I got the call from (director of football) Mark Allen and there was the opportunity to do that,’ he said.
‘I had spoken to the gaffer quite a lot since I was there and wished him all the best. He has given me the opportunity to come back and I am very thankful to him. It is up to me to try and repay him.
‘I don’t think I have ever taken it for granted that I am here and I am fortunate. A lot of young boys growing up have dreamt of being here and I have the chance to do it.
‘It seems a second chance because, under the previous manager, my future wasn’t at Rangers anymore. It is a second chance to come back and play football.’