How Rangers roared back
The Gers are on top once more, after a crazy decade of disorder
At 5pm one Saturday in late March 2013, the Smiddy Haugh Hotel’s bar was virtually deserted. Not much happens in Aberuthven, a tiny village on the A9 between Perth and Stirling, but that was about to change. Unexpectedly, the doors burst open and in came Ally Mccoist, accompanied by a boisterous Rangers squad. “There were two a two punters at the bar, and they shouted to the owner to remind him of the rules about no football colours,” recalled Mccoist with a smile. “There were 20 Rangers players, standing there in their tracksuits.”
That lunchtime, Rangers had drawn 0- 0 at Montrose. In normal circumstances, there would have been no jumping for joy following a result like that. These were far from normal circumstances, however: the Gers were in the fourth tier of Scottish football, and they had just made the first step on their long journey back to the top.
When Queen’s Park slipped up at home to Elgin that afternoon, promotion was sealed and Mccoist stopped the coach trip back to Glasgow, ushering the players inside for half an hour of celebratory drinks.
That moment of happiness had been long overdue, after the most turbulent year the club had ever known. First administration, then liquidation, then demotion to Scotland’s bottom tier – all in the space of a few chaotic months in 2012. It has taken nine years to recover from those devastating events – nine years made all the tougher by Celtic racking up nine consecutive league titles.
But finally, their misery is over. Under the management of ex- Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard, Rangers have surged to the Scottish Premiership title this season, and will raise the league trophy for the first time since 2011. The success marks the end of the most remarkable period in the famous club’s history – a period they are more than happy to leave behind...
UNHAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
Craig Whyte’s reign as Rangers owner could not have got off to a better start. Nine days in charge, one league title.
On the final day of the 2010- 11 campaign, just over a week after Whyte’s takeover, the Gers triumphed 5- 1 at Kilmarnock to become Scottish champions for the third season in succession. It was a world record 54th league title for the Ibrox giants. No one imagined it would be their last for 10 years.
“Not at all, because we were dominating,” says Lee Mcculloch, who had joined the club in 2007. In his first campaign, Mcculloch had been part of a squad that reached the UEFA Cup final – Rangers’ first European showpiece since 1972. “It was an unbelievable journey,” he remembers. “Zenit were too good for us in the final, but I think 220,000 Rangers fans took over Manchester. My family aren’t lavish, but they got a limo down to make it special. The M74 and M6 were a sea of blue scarves hanging out of cars.”
It was one of many iconic moments during the 23- year tenure of owner David Murray – a spell that delivered 15 league titles and 35 major trophies in total. The final years of his reign had been characterised by cost- cutting, though, and Rangers were known to be more than £ 30 million in debt.
“The signs were there,” former striker Kenny Miller tells Fourfourtwo. “I rejoined Rangers for my second spell in 2008. We brought in Steven Davis, Pedro Mendes and Kyle Lafferty, but I don’t think we really made a permanent signing after that until Nikica Jelavic in 2010. You could sense things were going on, but I’d never have imagined the extremes it got to, when the s** t hit the fan.”
Surprised by a lack of agreement over his contract extension, Miller was sold to Turkish outfit Bursaspor halfway through Rangers’ final title- winning season. Murray had been looking to offload the club for some time, and probes were already ongoing into Rangers’ tax affairs when Whyte bought the club for just £ 1 in May 2011. “I think it will bring back a level of stability to Rangers,” commented manager Walter Smith.
The reality turned out to be the opposite, however. The first nine days went well, but it was all downhill from there. Smith departed the dugout that summer as part of a prior arrangement to let Mccoist, his loyal deputy, take charge. The Gers’ transfer business was underwhelming, with some voicing concerns about the level of funding Whyte could offer the club. Rangers lost 2- 1 on aggregate to Malmo in Champions League qualifying, then 3- 2 on aggregate to Maribor in attempting to reach the Europa League.
Rangers did actually lead the league by 12 points in November, but Jelavic was sold to Everton in January, and Neil Lennon’s Celtic won 14 successive SPL matches to go four points clear of their rivals by Valentine’s Day. Then, came some catastrophic news.
“We were used to having a few cameras at the training ground on a Friday, but this time there were 20 or 30 media people waiting at the gates – we knew something huge was happening,” says youth team graduate and Northern Ireland international Andy Little, 22 at the time.
The squad were called into a meeting. “The owner came in and told us that the club was going into administration,” says Mcculloch. “You’re thinking, ‘ A club of this size? How can that be?’ I grew up as a Rangers supporter – my dad took me to matches. All of a sudden, the club was on its knees.”
A week earlier, reports had emerged that Whyte had borrowed over £ 20m against four years of future season ticket revenue from Ticketus, to help fund his takeover. Rangers
“CLUBS BIT THEIR NOSE OFF TO SPITE THEIR FACE – SENDING RANGERS DOWN HURT THEIR OWN FINANCES”
were losing £ 10m a year and owed £ 9m to HMRC, who were still pursuing a bigger case about the club’s use of Employee Benefit Trusts ( EBTS) to pay staff over the previous 10 years – alleging that they underpaid tax by nearly £ 50m. It was a case that Rangers eventually lost, after several more years of legal wrangling.
When administration was announced, the Gers were deducted 10 points – putting them 14 behind Celtic and effectively ending their title hopes. In the remaining months of the 2011- 12 campaign, training was sometimes replaced by further squad meetings.
“We had to take salary reductions,” admits Little. “As footballers, we’re better at running around and kicking a ball – we’re not great at having 25 of us together in a room, chatting percentages of salaries. Most of us agreed we would take 25, 50 or 75 per cent reductions. I was one of the younger players and wasn’t earning much, so we were at the 25 per cent mark. Massive credit needs to go to the boys who took a 75 per cent reduction for the rest of the season. We all wanted to do our bit.”
Even that couldn’t stop things spiralling out of control. In April, administrators estimated that the club’s debts could reach as high as £ 134m. A month later, Charles Green bought Whyte’s 85 per cent stake for £ 2 – a fee that Green quipped gave Whyte a “100 per cent profit”. But the takeover depended on HMRC accepting a Company Voluntary Agreement put forward by Green – in June, they rejected the deal. Instead, Green opted to commence a liquidation process and transfer the club’s assets to a new company.
In July, SPL clubs voted on whether to allow the new company to play in the top tier. Ten said no, with Kilmarnock choosing to abstain. Rangers were left in limbo, without a division for nine days until a Scottish Football League meeting. Mccoist and Green both attended, making the case for Rangers to be allowed to join the second tier. It fell on deaf ears. Of the 30 member clubs, 25 voted to send them to the very bottom – down to the fourth tier.
The outcome was greeted with anger by Rangers fans and players. “That put a really dark and bad feeling around Scottish football – it caused scars that still remain today,” says Little. “A lot of clubs bit their nose off to spite their face – they chose to damage their own finances, because putting Rangers down to the bottom league affected them massively. It caused a lot of animosity.”
“I’D FOUND A JET SKI...”
That summer, players had a decision to make for the sake of their careers. Davis, Lafferty, Steven Naismith and Allan Mcgregor were among those who opted not to transfer their contracts to the new company.
“A career is short, so it was understandable for the players who did decide to leave,” says Mcculloch, by then 34 years old. “I received a couple of offers to go abroad, but I chose to show my loyalty and stay, to be made captain and try to help the club get back to where it belonged. The club couldn’t sign any players because of a transfer embargo, so I wanted to stick by the team I’d grown up with. I felt duty bound, to be honest.”
Little made the same decision. “I’d been at the club for six years – when I was told at the age of 16 that I had interest from Rangers, I genuinely thought they meant Enniskillen Rangers, my local side,” he laughs. “I’d fallen in love with the club. A few of us were left as free agents that summer to do whatever we wanted, because the club were concentrating on bigger issues. I was a couple of days away from joining Portsmouth – I’d found my digs at Ocean Village in Southampton, and even been on ebay and found a jet ski. I thought of this life by the seaside, but then I spoke to Rangers, explained I was about to leave and they made me an offer. I was happy to stay – I didn’t really want to go. It was only because I couldn’t wait forever.”
Rangers’ new reality began with their first game of the 2012- 13 season, in the Scottish Challenge Cup. “It was a competition for the lower leagues that none of us had ever heard of,” confesses Little. “The first match was at Brechin, which is famous for having a hedge on one side of the ground. Within months,
we’d gone from Old Firm games with 50,000 people, to playing at Brechin in front of a big hedge with 4,000 crammed in.”
Rangers were taken to extra time at Glebe Park, eventually triumphing 2- 1. A fortnight later, they played their first game in the Third Division and came close to humiliation. “You were playing teams and it was like a cup final for them,” continues Mcculloch. “It was never going to be easy.”
That became clear at Peterhead, a Highland League side until the turn of the century. The visitors fielded an experienced XI including Mcculloch, Lee Wallace, Neil Alexander, Kirk Broadfoot, Romania international Dorin Goian and Carlos Bocanegra, then the captain of the US national team. The latter was turned inside out for Peterhead’s leveller, before the minnows took a shock 2- 1 lead with just eight minutes remaining.
“It was probably fear that got us that late equaliser,” reveals Little, who rescued a draw in the 90th minute. “It was the dread of the public outcry – fans wouldn’t have been too happy, and other clubs would have laughed at us. At the final whistle you thought, ‘ Thank God we didn’t lose, because that would have been embarrassing’.”
A remarkable 49,118 spectators turned up to see Rangers thrash East Stirlingshire 5- 1 in their next match at Ibrox – a global record for a fourth- tier fixture. But the team failed to win any of their first four away games in the league, with stalemates against Berwick and Annan followed by a defeat at Stirling. Goian, Bocanegra and Broadfoot left, as a number of young players emerged.
“I was a boyhood fan, so to be at Rangers was unbelievable,” enthuses defender Chris Hegarty, who’d spent the previous season in the reserves. “Originally I thought I’d have to go on loan, then when things unfolded off the field that year, I thought, ‘ I may get a chance to play for Rangers here’.
“Ally Mccoist had sat me down at the end of the season and said, ‘ Although I can’t offer you a contract at the minute, I want you back here for pre- season’. I asked him where I was going to stay and whether I’d have any digs, and he said, ‘ If needs be, you can stay at my house – but I’m sure it won’t come to that’. The contract was sorted, then I came into the team that season.
“At the start, the senior players were there but some didn’t know what was happening with their futures. Going to all of these small away grounds was a complete shock to a lot of them. When me and a few other younger lads came in, there was more buzz. For us, it was an opportunity to play for Rangers. Fans wanted us to smash teams 7- 0 every week, but that wasn’t going to happen. It was just about winning, no matter how pretty it was.”
After losing at Stirling, Rangers then won 11 matches on the spin between October and January to take control of the league. “I quite enjoyed that season,” admits Mcculloch. “At every away match, Rangers supporters took over the town. Some couldn’t get a ticket, so they’d go into pubs instead.”
A match at Elgin had to be postponed after the hosts accidentally sold 1,000 more tickets than their Borough Briggs ground’s capacity. Rangers’ average Ibrox crowd of 45,744 was the sixth highest in Britain that term – above Liverpool and reigning European champions Chelsea, and only 104 fewer than neighbours Celtic in the SPL.
Despite splitting his time between central defence and upfront, Mcculloch hit 26 goals, while Little netted 25 times. “I won the Sam English Bowl for the top league goalscorer – to have my name in the history of Rangers Football Club is something I’m unbelievably proud of, and something I’ll take with me to my grave,” says Little.
Promotion and the title were confirmed on March 30, prompting the visit to the Smiddy Haugh Hotel, then a trophy presentation at Ibrox after the final game of the campaign. “Fans and players celebrated it just like any other title,” insists Mcculloch.
“By the time we were awarded the trophy, I’d gone into hospital for a hernia operation,” recalls Hegarty. “There was a Celtic fan in the bed across from me, so we were going back and forth – a bit of craic. Then our assistant manager Kenny Mcdowall came in with the trophy. I’d had that much morphine, I ended up marching around the hospital ward and singing Rangers songs.”
EXIT MIKE ASHLEY, PURSUED BY A BEAR
Rangers made light work of the third tier in 2013- 14, going through the entire league season unbeaten, amassing 102 points and plundering 106 goals after winning 33 of their 36 fixtures.
Off- field problems had rumbled on, though. Green resigned as chief executive after the board launched an investigation into claims he still had links with the unpopular Whyte – he was cleared and returned as a consultant, only to swiftly resign again and sell his shares after a fall- out with Mccoist. Between 2013
and 2015, boardroom infighting meant the Gers went through five different chairmen – among them former manager Walter Smith, who quit after nine weeks in the role.
As the 2014- 15 campaign kicked off, fans were angered when news emerged that two years earlier, Green had sold Ibrox’s naming rights to Newcastle owner Mike Ashley for £ 1 – part of a commercial agreement that put the Sports Direct magnate in control of the club’s retail department. Ashley soon upped his stake in Rangers to 8.92 per cent, but was blocked by the SFA from raising it to 29.9 per cent due to his involvement with Newcastle. Former Magpies managing director Derek Llambias became the club’s chief executive, with Rangers making five loan signings from Newcastle in early February 2015.
Two months earlier, Mccoist had decided enough was enough, frustrated at the chaos and staff redundancies behind the scenes. Rangers were expected to surge to a third straight promotion in the second tier, but had already fallen well behind leaders Hearts. The gaffer handed in his resignation, beginning a 12- month notice period, only to be placed on gardening leave soon after.
“The whole dressing room was stunned and gutted when Ally resigned, because he was a leader,” reveals Mcculloch, who was playing his eighth and final season at the club. “He deserves a huge amount of credit for the way he conducted himself as Rangers manager, with everything that went on off the pitch. It was always going to be hard enough to take over from Walter Smith anyway – he said it was like taking the mic off Frank Sinatra and having to go and sing. Ally was a great boss, but the bad luck he suffered in management was just unreal.”
That campaign, Mccoist had brought back both Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller to bolster the Gers’ strikeforce for the Championship. “I was keen to return and play my part in getting the club back to the top – and ultimately win the title back,” says Miller, another boyhood Rangers fan. “There were big expectations in the Championship, but Hearts and Hibs were in that division, too – it was actually more competitive than the Premiership that year. We eventually finished three points behind Hibs in third, which tells you where we were as a club at that time. To finish third, outside the Premiership, is absolutely unthinkable for a team like Rangers.”
Assistant manager Mcdowall had replaced Mccoist, but tendered his own resignation in
“WE WENT FROM OLD FIRM GAMES WITH 50,000, TO BRECHIN IN FRONT OF A BIG HEDGE”
January 2015. He served his notice and left two months later, shortly after Llambias had been voted off the club’s board as Ashley’s influence waned and Dave King gained more control. Based in South Africa, the Scot then became chairman that summer.
Succeeding Mcdowall in the Gers’ dugout was ex- Rangers midfielder Stuart Mccall, on a contract until the end of the season. “I’d had four years at Motherwell – when Rangers went down, we finished second a couple of times and reached the Champions League qualifying rounds,” Mccall tells FFT. “I’d left Motherwell in November, then got a call from Rangers – Walter Smith had put me forward. On my first day there, he phoned me and his first words were, ‘ Do you know what you’re f** king getting yourself into? Have you seen them this season?!’ I said, ‘ Oh cheers gaffer, thanks!’ He wished me all the best.
“Morale was low, probably the lowest I’ve seen at a football club, because they’d had some poor results – they’d just drawn 0- 0 at Cowdenbeath. The supporters had wanted the previous board out, and in one of my first games we got 28,000 at Ibrox. But we turned it around to an extent, reached the play- offs and had full houses of 50,000.”
The Gers defeated fourth- placed Queen of the South in the play- off quarter- finals, then overcame second- placed Hibs in the semis. That set up a final against Mccall’s old club Motherwell, who’d finished second bottom of the Premiership. “We were controlling the first leg at Ibrox,” remembers Mccall. “Then bang – they scored three times in 20 minutes. We got one goal back, but when we went to Motherwell for the second leg, we collapsed after losing the first goal.”
Rangers were thrashed 6- 1 on aggregate, missing out on another promotion. After the final whistle, Tunisian defender Bilel Mohsni completely lost it and unloaded a kickboxing combination on Motherwell striker Lee Erwin, earning him a seven- match suspension. “He was a hot- headed character, and I think he just flipped,” says Mccall. “I got asked about it afterwards and said I didn’t see it, then the papers had a picture of me in between them, trying to pull him away. People were saying, ‘ Mccall’s a lying bastard!’ What I meant was, I didn’t see how it started...”
NO PROGRESS AGAINST PROGRES
Mark Warburton was appointed as manager in the summer of 2015, and Rangers’ second crack at the Championship went much better. They won their first 11 league matches and waltzed to the title, also beating Peterhead to lift the Challenge Cup after three previous unsuccessful attempts – they’d lost to Raith Rovers in the 2014 final.
Significantly, they also pulled off an upset to beat Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi- finals. “There was a big message sent,” says Kenny Miller, a scorer that day. “Celtic weren’t great at that time under Ronny Deila, and maybe that defeat [ on penalties] struck a chord with them – they hired Brendan Rodgers a month later. It was a good season for us, just soured by losing the cup final to Hibs. It was the first time ever that two Championship teams had been in the Scottish Cup final.”
Back in the top flight, Rangers attempted to strengthen the squad, with Joey Barton the headline signing. The midfielder vowed to be the best player in Scotland, stating that Celtic rival Scott Brown was “nowhere near the level I am”. But Rangers won only two of their first seven games, losing 5- 1 at Parkhead in the first league showdown against the Bhoys for four and a half years.
“That was humiliating,” laments Miller. “I’ve watched it back a couple of times from start to finish, even through all the pain at the end when it was four and five. For large spells we were in the game, but Celtic had a top coach in Brendan, and Moussa Dembele punished us for mistakes – he’s at Atletico Madrid now.
“After matching Celtic in the Scottish Cup semis, we’d come back up with positivity – at Rangers, you don’t go into any season with any other expectation than to win the title. That game was a reality check, although the first reality check came in the first game of the season, when we drew 1- 1 with Hamilton at Ibrox.”
Brown had been quick to gloat after his triumph over Barton at Parkhead – days later, the Rangers midfielder was suspended after a training ground bust- up with team- mate Andy Halliday. Barton never played for the club again.
Celtic charged to the title without losing a single match in 2016- 17 –
“THIS YEAR RANGERS HAVE BEEN A VERY DIFFERENT ANIMAL. THEY ARE RUTHLESS AND RELENTLESS”
the first time any team had done that in the top flight since 1899. Rangers were 27 points behind in third place by February, when it was announced that Warburton had resigned. The manager insisted that he’d done no such thing, but Pedro Caixinha was soon confirmed as the club’s new boss.
The Portuguese’s reign lasted a mere seven months – including a dire Europa League loss to Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn on Rangers’ return to continental football. “Was it the worst result in the club’s history? Maybe – it was definitely one of them,” says Miller. “I scored the winner in the home leg, but the tie should have been out of sight. We went there, conceded a goal, then the next goal went in a few minutes later and you’re thinking, ‘ Oh my God, what’s going on?’ It was a disaster. Then you had Pedro in a hedge, trying to talk to fans.”
As he left the ground, the boss was photographed standing in the middle of a shrubbery as he debated with enraged supporters. “We’d just gone out of Europe to a part- time team – speaking to fans is probably the wrong thing to do,” adds Miller. “There was someone who didn’t understand what the club was about.”
Caixinha was on his way by October, with Rangers fourth in the league. Graeme Murty took temporary charge until the end of the campaign, but the Gers finished third behind Aberdeen for a second successive year.
STEVIE WONDER
In May 2018, Steven Gerrard walked through the door. “I have confidence that I can deliver here,” he declared, as he began his first role as a manager. During a stellar playing career, he had famously won everything apart from a domestic league title. Now, his task was to win exactly that.
“A few people raised eyebrows, but Rangers were getting someone who was going to set standards,” explains Mccall. “He’d captained Liverpool, which was almost like managing, with the huge expectations and pressure of a two- club city. He might not have managed, but he had leadership experience.”
Rangers built confidence in his first season by reaching the Europa League group stage, only narrowly missing out on a last 32 spot. They claimed their first league victory over Celtic since 2012 and finished second, closing the gap at the top to nine points. Gerrard got 30 goals from striker Alfredo Morelos, despite the temperamental Colombian being sent off a staggering five times that season. He also welcomed back veterans Allan Mcgregor and Steven Davis, members of the club’s previous title- winning squad under Walter Smith.
In 2019- 20, Rangers progressed further in the Europa League than Celtic, reaching the last 16, and looked in real contention to win the SPL at the turn of the year – two points behind with a game in hand, after a 2- 1 win at Parkhead. But three weeks earlier they had lost the League Cup final to their arch rivals, not helped by Morelos missing a penalty to equalise. Rangers were still without a major trophy since 2011.
From late January onwards, they collapsed, falling 13 points behind the Bhoys by the time coronavirus halted the campaign. Celtic were awarded a ninth successive title on points per game. “There was criticism aimed Steven’s way, but credit to the board – they stuck by him,” says Mccall. Not since the early 1950s and the great Bill Struth had a Rangers boss kept his job after going two complete seasons without any silverware at all.
Celtic were title favourites again this term, as they bid to become the first Scottish team to win 10 in a row. But Rangers took control of the race from the start. By late February, they were 18 points clear and undefeated in the league, having conceded only nine goals.
“This season you have seen a completely different animal,” says Miller, now assistant manager at Australian club Western Sydney Wanderers. “Rangers have been ruthless and relentless, and there’s been no doubt about how it’s going to end – with James Tavernier’s hands lifting the league trophy. Over the last three years, there’s been stability and huge progress every year – it just takes time. The trophy- laden days could be back to Ibrox now. Steven Gerrard has done a great job.”
Inevitably, it’s increased speculation that Gerrard will end up as Liverpool boss one day. Asked whether he believes that will happen, Mccall has an instant response. “No – he’s at the best club in the world, so why would he want to join f** king Liverpool?!” laughs a man who also represented Everton in his playing career. “He was linked with the Derby job last season – people don’t understand when they write things like that. You’re getting 50,000 fans for every home game at Rangers, then playing European matches and taking 8,000 away. They will be in the Champions League again next season. So a bit further down the line, Liverpool yes, but I’d never speak about him moving to any other clubs, because he’s at one of the biggest in Britain now. I know Steven thinks that, too.”
Rangers’ stature was only strengthened by their adventure through the lower leagues, backed by an army of loyal supporters. “Every single club in Scotland owes an awful lot to Rangers fans, because despite those teams voting Rangers out of the top division, they still went around the grounds buying tickets, burgers, drinks and programmes,” says Andy Little. “They pumped a large amount of cash into Scottish football. They deserve this title, for all the hurt they’ve had over the last nine years, all the drama and front page headlines. This is the first plaster on those wounds. It’s an end to the misery.”
For Lee Mcculloch, there’s a massive sense of satisfaction. A boyhood Rangers fan who decided to stay put and lead the team when they plunged into the Third Division, he can say he played his part in getting them back to where they are today – and he’s had his title celebrations in mind for some time.
“A glass of wine all round,” he smiles. “I’m extremely proud to go down in history as the captain when we came through the leagues, and all the supporters deserve an enormous amount of credit for the way they’ve helped the club climb back to where it belongs. We were getting 45,000 crowds in the fourth tier of Scottish football. That’s why, in terms of league titles, Rangers are the most successful club in the world.”
At last, after 10 long and challenging years, title number 55 is here.