Ross Perry the Rangers loanee has spoken to Phil Gordon from the Times about his time with the U's, Richard Branson, Scotland under 21's and living in a mansion!
From the Times: Ross Perry found it hard being in the shadow of Madjid Bougherra and David Weir at Rangers but a new life in England has given the young defender an illustrious neighbour that would win any name-dropping contest: Sir Richard Branson.
The Scotland Under-21 centre-back is on a four-month loan at Oxford United, the leaders of the Blue Square Premier League, which has allowed the teenager to swap Ibrox for a house in the Oxfordshire countryside, in which the billionaire businessman is a neighbour.
Perry is one of four players in Billy Stark's Scotland Under-21 squad on loan from a bigger to a smaller club.
Apart from rubbing shoulders with one of
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The demise of the SPL reserve league and the impenetrable barrier of Bougherra and Weir, who rarely miss a game, prompted Perry and Steven Kinniburgh to accept the loan deal when Oxford came calling last month.
"Without the SPL reserve league this season, it is going to be hard to break into the first team," Perry said. "Anyway, reserve and youth games lack the competitive edge I am getting with Oxford, where we played in front of over 10,000 fans when we met Luton recently. Oxford is a big club, with a good tradition but modern facilities, and they have a decent fan base, with about 6,000 at our home games.
"The club has put myself and Steven up in a place three miles outside Oxford called Kidlington. It's a mansion, actually. The owner knows the chairman and his place has a granny flat, which we stay in for free. Richard Branson has got a house round the corner and one of my team-mates saw him driving past. I think the Oxford coaches are trying to get him to put Virgin's name on the Oxford shirts."
There is no doubt that the man who is worth £1.5 billion could buy and sell Rangers, never mind modest Oxford, but Perry is really hoping that the present financial pragmatism at Ibrox will work in his favour when he heads back to Glasgow once the loan is over.
"Every player who joins the youth system at Rangers wants to play for the first team," Perry said. "However, it is hard at Rangers, and Celtic, to jump up from the level of under-19s straight into the youth team. To bridge that gap, I have to get first-team football elsewhere but I am learning a lot at Oxford.
"It is a great club to be at. Chris Wilder saw me play against them at Murray Park and said I would fit in at their level. Rangers have a big squad and it is hard to get noticed. So, I will try my hardest to give myself the best chance when I go back in January."
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