So, for quite a long time I've followed Rangers.
Absolutely loved those squads of the early-mid 90s, with Laudrup (one of the all-time best), Gascoigne (no comment needed), McCoist, Gough, Durrant, Goram, Hateley - so many outstanding players. Yes, Rangers did buy some titles but they were damn good. And some of those signings for so very astute.
Walter Smith was a God. He really was.
Onto the later 90s there were new influences after Smith's departure (the first one) with Advocaat (or the Netherlands) taking over. Along with his takeover, Sky TV flooded the game with money. Yes. Flooded the
SPL with money. Rangers went bezerk. In his first year alone, Advocaat spent like a trillion dollars. (I may be out a dollar or two with my estimation, but I'm sure I'm close) - Tore Andre Flo - 12 million pounds? Really? You could buy my town for that!
When Martin O'Neill (for mine, the greatest manager of all-time WITHOUT QUESTION) took over Celtic, Rangers FINALLY had the competition they craved since the late 80s.
O'Neill came in with effectively a history of getting the best of the players he had, without necessarily having the budget. Now, it appeared Celtic were prepared to afford him a more than reasonable budget.
As a result, Celtic won 3 of the next 4 championships (and 6 of the next 7 though those extras they weren't O'Neill's).
As a Rangers fan, I thought it would be harder to like those Celtic teams, but what O'Neill did was incredible. Not only in the SPL but in Europe. He won fairly and squarely and Rangers just seemed to be muddling about.
Still, Gers were my side, and I knew they'd comeback despite the ridiculous appointments of managers.
To this day, I maintain Alex McLeish is a completely overrated gimp who could not manage (and still cannot). Look at his signings that are listed below. It is a disgrace.
Brahim Hemdani
Jose-Karl Pierre-Fanfan
Federico Nieto
Dany N'Guessan
Julien Rodriguez
Sotirios Kyrgiakos
Filippo Maniero
Olivier Bernard
Francis Jeffers (may have been in a casket when signed)
Moses Ashikodi
Dada Prso
Dragan Mladenovic
Jukka Santala
Seriously. Do you know ANY of these guys?
I sitll maintain Paul LeGuen was not completely shite - though he obviously lost the title to Celtic within 4 months - not quite a record, but also not "swell". He was not good, at all, but I think McLeish's later years were far worse than LeGuen's year.
Rangers needed a resurrection...a hero, and on 10 January 2007, Walter Smith returned. Of course I'm not saying only Walter could manage Rangers, but appointing shit in his place is not gonna bring titles, nor hope, to the Gers faithful.
Those 2001 to 2007-odd teams were disgusting. As a Rangers fan I struggled to like them, apart from the obvious quality such as Barry Ferguson, Ronald de Boer, Mikel Arteta (actually I didn't like him, but he was decent) - ok that is all! (Frank de Boer was good, but Rangers signed him a week before he received his wheelchair licence)
They'd completely lost their identity, for mine, and were just signing whoever seemed to be in form, over the top expensive, and would even remotely consider joining the club. That is the lowest that it got for me.
On Walter's return, Rangers financial problems were fairly evident. He returned them to at least signing decent players, not Nuno Capucho, Emerson, Jean-Alain Boumsong (thank you Souness and Newcastle).
He signed some top players such as Steven Naismith, Steven Davis, Steven Whittaker (ok, not really good, got carried away with all the Stevens), Maurice Edu, Kyle Lafferty (I don't really like him), Pedro Mendes, Kenny Miller and Nikica Jelavic.
Rangers were back on track, albeit with less money to spend. But Smith's genious allowed Rangers to win more titles and finish runners-up in the UEFA Cup. In fact, Rangers won upon his second year of full return, 2008-09, then the next two years until his next retirement.
Without a heap of money, he achieved it again. Brilliance. Especially that 2010-11 year when Celtic had it in the bag!!!
In the April/May of 2011, Rangers were bought by Craig Whyte. For one pound. Yes. One solitary pound. Sir David Murray, the owner of Rangers since 1988, sold the club he bought and, supposedly, loved sold this club for a pound.
Shit. I'll pay 15 of them (okay, maybe 8)
It was evident at this point there were problems, but the full magnitude of the problems were not truly known until well after this sale. Unpaid taxes and the somewhat skeptical legitimacy of trusts set up by the club to pay players were unveiled by the BBC in the later months.
Craig Whyte did not help any situation by not paying any taxes since taking over the club. He also didn't help by, in general, being a monsterous #flogbag with his inability to even remotely pretend to like either the club or the fans during this ordeal.
It all came to a head in February when Rangers were put, voluntarily, by Whyte into administration.
Anyway, you all know the story.
The worst part of all of this, is the plight of the fan. Rangers fans, in general, have done nothing wrong. The problems created, either through ridiculous overspending, unpaid taxes or dubious trusts, were created by the SIR David Murray and the board. The people that the fans had good faith in to believe they were, at all times, acting in the best interests of the club.
We know better now.
Supposedly SIR David Murray is still worth a lot of money. Surely, if he has any love for Rangers, he'll bail them out of this predicament - as I would if I had even a quarter of the debt. However, I fear, he does not possess that love. And, just as surely, he MUST be stripped of his knighthood.
Unfortunately, it appears Rangers Football Club are destined for demise.
Sadly, again, the fans will pay for it. RIP. Rangers Football Club.
