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Billy Davies has claimed a vicious smear campaign stopped him from landing the Rangers job.

The Scot has been out of management since being sacked by Nottingham Forest four and a half years ago.

In a wide-ranging and explosive interview with The Times, Davies has lifted the lid on the lies he insists have prevented him getting back into football.

He tells how a vendetta from an unnamed PR company denied him the chance to work at Ibrox and spells out what stopped him succeeding Ian Cathro at Hearts.

Davies has spent three years pursuing a legal case against Forest after his sacking and has collected data that he says proves he is innocent of any wrongdoing and which provides evidence of a smear campaign.

The 53-year-old Glaswegian said: "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 higher — 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 shitty 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 very good football manager. Just look at my record. So let's not be kidded here, it has been a smear campaign.

"My integrity and my morality will not allow them to do what they are doing to me these smears, these lies. I'm going to prove it."

Davies has claimed the campaign did him out of the chance to manage Rangers three years ago.

(Image: SNS Group)

He added: "In December 2014 some people were touting me for the Rangers job. So what they did was, they hit the Rangers fans’ forums, and they wrote nasty things about me there. My agent was told by a Rangers board member that the reason why Rangers did not come and get me, was because of these accusations.

"Then you get these ex-pros coming along and saying, 'Don't touch Billy Davies, it must be terrible working with Davies'. Look, I know these people aren't just writing these things off their own back. We knew what was going on. I've been showing this to my legal people. I've been gathering all this (evidence) for three years now. I know what's been happening."

After Cathro’s sacking, Davies was in the running for the Hearts job, a role eventually claimed by Craig Levein.

He later pulled out, citing the club’s structure debarred him from working at Tynecastle.

But he insists it wasn’t because he wouldn’t work under Levein. It was because he’d have binned the likes of Austin MacPhee.

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Davies says: "I gave them a wonderful presentation.

"But the tricky bit came when I put the staffing structure to them.

"Contrary to reports I did not ask for the removal of Craig Levein.

"I get on well with Craig and was happy to work with Craig. I just identified a different remit for him that I felt would be good for our working relationship.

"If I hadn't asked for Jon Daly to go back to the under-20s, and for the removal of Austin MacPhee, and the removal of Liam Fox, and for Craig Levein to go to the side and take charge of the structure had I not asked for all of that I'd be the new manager of Hearts.

"We had a great chat. But they did not want to remove Austin MacPhee, or put Jon Daly back down to where he should go."

Davies insists he will return to the game – but it won’t be at a club he feels is beneath him.

He added: "I will not jump back in to a St Mirren, a Dundee United, a Hearts, with all due respect to these clubs. I know I am a very good football manager. I will not jump back into football and take a job that is beneath me.

"A smear campaign has driven me away. For whatever reason, they have decided to take away from me something that I love. They have put my career on pause. But I'll be back soon. I don't think there is any doubt that one day I will be back at the top of football."