Billy Davies flashback on Rangers 'smear campaign' he claims stopped him getting Ibrox job in 2014

Billy Davies claimed a smear campaign stopped him from landing the Rangers job in 2014 – as he gets set to pitch for the vacancy nine years on.

Record Sport understands the former Nottingham Forest boss is keen on replacing Michael Beale and wants to boost his campaign for the job by putting together an experienced backroom team with firm Ibrox connections. We revealed he’s got the backing of several influential figures at the club and is hopeful of catapulting himself into the running alongside Frank Lampard, Pascal Jansen and Kevin Muscat.

It comes six years on from the explosive interview Davies gave to The Times – where he claimed a "smear campaign" shot down his chances of replacing Ally McCoist back in December 2014. Speaking in 2017, Davies claimed he'd spent three years pursuing a legal case against his old club Forest after his sacking. He said he had proof he is innocent of any wrongdoing and had evidence of a smear campaign against him.

The Glaswegian, who hasn't had a top job since leaving Forest almost a decade ago, said back then: "I love football, I miss football. But three years ago I spoke with a very respected legal individual who, back at the beginning of all this, told me categorically: 'Billy, you cannot go back into football until you clear this up'.

"I've spent in the region of £100,000, maybe more, on my case. I know I am innocent. You saw it everywhere on social media: 'Bloody Billy Davies there is a reason why no club will touch him with a 10-foot pole, even s***** Scottish teams'. It was all over Twitter and elsewhere, these lies about me.

"You'd think, over all this time, somebody like me should have had my hand bitten off — by Rangers, by all these English Championship clubs — because I am a