Gers are reason I am here
Seeing American stars excel at Rangers was one of the reasons why Ian Harkes wanted to try Scottish football.
Today at Tannadice he wants to see the Ibrox side suffer by dishing out their first defeat of the season.
The Dundee United ace’s dad John played alongside Claudio Reyna for the US national side and he has the same agent as DaMarcus Beasley and Maurice Edu, who both won titles at Gers.
Harkes said: “I knew there were a lot of Americans who had success there in the past.
“My agent , Lyle Yorks, brought a lot of them to Rangers so I was definitely aware of how good a team they were and the platform they had in Europe.
“Claudio was a few years younger than my dad but he played with him in spells.
“I also grew up watching Carlos Bocanegra, Beasley and Edu and they all had time at
Rangers and it was great to see them do well.
“That encouraged me to come to Scotland. Not just those players but I knew they had come here and done well.”
Harkes knows United face the toughest of tests today.
He said: “You want to be the team that ends their run.
“We know how good their form is right now but we need to have belief in ourselves.
“We know it wi l l be a tough ask against Rangers but hopefully we’ll set ourselves up to be tough to beat.”
United copped a 4- 0 hiding against Gers at Ibrox in September after trying to get after Gerrard’s men and play on the front foot.
Harkes has hinted that boss Micky Mellon might adopt a different approach on Tayside today as they look to contain the Premiership leaders.
He said: “We know we have to be compact against Rangers and tough to break down.
“If you make mistakes against them, they can punish you. We have to be careful about that for this game.”